Spyro The Ultimate Enemy
by BestNotes
Summary: COMPLETE! When Cynder is freed from an icy prison, it sets off a chain of events that ultimately places Spyro in a position he'd least expect to be in.
1. Prologue Making History

**Spyro- The Ultimate Enemy**

**By SpyroCapcomFan **

**Author's Notes: First off is a disclaimer. I do not own, nor intend to poorly portray 75 of the characters in this story. This crossover includes characters from multiple game universes including ****but not limited**** to Spyro, Sonic, Mario, Megaman, Pokémon, and Kirby; they are copyrighted by their respective companies (i.e. Nintendo, Sega, Capcom, etc.). Additionally, characters in this story ****ARE BASED OFF**** characters from these games, but have completely different personalities and original names. I am in no way trying to rip off the companies so please don't sue me! For more info on that, you'll have to wait for the credits. Also in this fan fiction are several original characters. I am perfectly fine with anyone borrowing them for uses in their writing but please ask permission of me first. **

**Now for a few quick notes; this fan fiction is not a direct spoof of one particular game. The plot/theme is a combination of the plot of Megaman games, and something completely made up by me. I do reference several games, including a few games that are yet to be released in America or the world (like Spyro: The Eternal Night). Additionally, there will be some items in this story that actually exist in this world (for example, the iPhone and the Nintendo DS). They are used for humor/moving the plot along. My last note is about reviewing. PLEASE REVIEW as your feedback is appreciated. I also like criticism; it helps me know what to do for future chapters. So feel free to criticize but don't flame. That concludes the boring part of this story. Now… we begin! **

**Prologue- Making History**  
UNKNOWN LOCATION, 0315 HOURS

What looks like a human appears to be typing into a computer in the middle of a giant room. There are computers everywhere and at the center lies a monstrous purple laser. Standing at 15 feet in height, the machine has a large metal body, and the laser itself is 4 feet in length. The figure begins typing his commands and pulls down on a giant metal switch. Instantly, an aura of black energy encircles the tip of the laser. The color quickly changes to blue as the rest of the laser and metal body begin flashing multi-colored lights. Finally, there is a bright white light and the figure screams, "YES! It is working!"

The light dies down and there are now several hundred blue holographic silhouettes floating at where the laser was aimed. The figure laughs and proudly announces, "I have done it! The Nightmare Ray is 100 operational! Soon I shall have an unconquerable army with witch I will rule the new world! I will crush all opposition!"

"Pardon me, master. Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"

A small purple box appears next to the figure. The box shrinks and is followed by a ripple of black energy that makes a small chime. A court-jester like being is floating next to the figure. His body and feet are completely purple. His head is half purple with a black crescent for an eye, and the other side is black with a purple crescent for an eye. His mouth is black on the purple side of his face and vice versa. His headpiece and suit alternates with purple and black while the three bells hanging off his headpiece are gold. He chuckles and speaks to the figure, "Sorry for the interruption, Master Gate... but our new recruit has valuable information on where to find the dragon."

Gate chuckles and speaks back; his voice is cool and icy, "Send him in, Nightmare Severus. I must acquire this information if we wish to ensure our victory!"

Severus bows and says, "I go!" He then teleports away the same way he appeared, the box. Gate meanwhile stares at his army of Nightmares and mumbles to himself. A few minutes pass when the electronic door's lock turns from red to green. The two parts slide into the wall as Nightmare Severus floats in with a tall red dragon at his side. The dragon is wearing a medallion and carrying a staff constructed of birch wood and masking tape. The scepter is topped by a sparkling pink trio of gems. Severus speaks, "Announcing the dragon, Red. Here to relay information to Master Gate."

Gate puts up his right hand, silencing Severus. He turns his attention toward Red. "I must thank you for using your Dark Gems to transform that stupid turtle's castle into this magnificent laboratory. The Dark Gems also provided an excellent power source for my Nightmare Ray. They will serve well with the Enigma Project. Now... I understand you have the location of the creature which Severus tells me possess infinite amounts of power?"

Red looks nervously at the ground and mutters, "That I do."

"Then it would be best to tell me now," Gate responds, showing no signs of rising temper or anger. This shocks Red.

"The Dragon Realms served as my home for many years. What I didn't realize, is that the realms are in a complete different dimension." Red looks toward Severus.

"Ah ha ha ha ha. 10,000 years ago all magical creatures were split from mortals. After numerous magical tests on your Dimensional Jumper, we've created a portal running on Dark Gem energy that lasts long enough, to get to this dimension." Gate beams at this statement and laughs.

"Good work!" He smiles and turns to Red. "You, along with three of my better minions, are to attack and take him. Don't let anything stand in your way. Severus, you hook up the Mind Bender in Laboratory 2A. I'll send the dragon there once we have him," commands Gate.

Severus responds, "As you wish, master."

Gate laughs again. "Then go! I want this operation to be smooth, and easy. If this goes right, we'll have an unstoppable super weapon at our disposal!" Red exits through the door and Severus teleports out, leaving Gate, who walks back to the computer and begins typing again. He says, "If this 'Spyro' is all he's chalked up to be, he should have no trouble defeated my minions. But from what Severus told me I don't believe he truly knows his potential yet."

END PROLOUGE

Next time, Chapter 1- A Spell-breaking Discovery


	2. A Spellbreaking Discovery

**Author's Note: I had started writing these on another site, so you'll get a lot of frequent updates for awhile.**

**Chapter 1- A Spell-breaking Discovery**  
ICE CAVERN, PEACE KEEPERS WORLD 0830 HOURS

The snowy ground twinkles dimly under the light of the lanterns, like stars in a cloudy night sky, as three dragons sit near one of the cavern walls. The first, about 4.5 feet in height, has purple scales, golden horns, and a golden underbelly. The other two, a couple of inches shorter, are pink and orange. The orange one shivers as it complains, "W-w-why did we have to c-c-come here? It's so c-c-cold!"

The purple dragon groans and gives his friend an annoyed look. "Because... this morning I received a note from an anonymous person telling me to come to THIS spot in Ice Cavern. I'm still not sure why." The orange one looks around.

"Well, t-t-there's nothing here but snow and lanterns! W-w-what could we p-possibly be looking f-f-f-for?" He grumbled.

The pink dragon is quick to snap at him, "Maybe if you'd quit complaining, we'd find it faster!"

"Well... sorry to rain on your little parade! I'm sorry Spyro, the big 'hero', doesn't have the guts to come here on his own!"

"HEY! You know very well I could have, Flame! You guys _INSISTED_ I bring you here!" growled Spyro, now getting to his feet. Spyro, unlike older dragons, still stood on all fours; as did Flame and the pink dragon, Ember.

"But you didn't TELL ME IT WAS ICE CAVERN! You KNOW I hate the cold!" Flame now rose to his feet, his temper rising. Spyro saw this and was quick to respond.

"Woah... sorry, Flame! Take it easy, you know how out of control you get..."

"'You know how out of control you get...' SHUT IT! I have a right to be ANGRY!" At this, Flame pulled his head back, then lurched forward and released a jet of crimson flames flying at Spyro. But Spyro was quick on his feet, and glided to the side.

"STOP! You're going to melt the..." Spyro tried to yell, but it was too late. There was a loud crash and the large, icy wall next to Flame exploded, sending fragments of ice everywhere. One particularly large, dagger-like piece began to fly toward Flame. "WATCH OUT!" Spyro yelled as he lunged at Flame, knocking him away from the icicle. Unfortunately, Spyro's momentum died down, and the icicle stabbed him in his right leg. Spyro yelped as he felt a warm, watery substance slide down his leg, but freeze quickly.

"Spyro!" Ember gasped and ran over to him. "That shard is in there really deep! Why would you do something so STUPID?"

Spyro glanced at the shard, and the blood frozen on his leg, "Because Flame's my friend. And friends help each other, no matter what the cost. Don't worry... it'll be fine." Spyro grabbed the shard with one of his front paws, digging his claws in the ice and pulled hard. The bloody shard was pulled free of his body, and Spyro winced in pain. But the thought was quickly forgotten because Flame started yelling.

"SPYROOOOOOO! You better have a look at this... you'll never believe it!" Spyro tried to get to his feet, but roared as he felt a razor sharp surge of pain from his leg.

_Shoot! There's no way I can walk on this thing. Let's see, what to... AH!_ Spyro picked up a handful of snow and pressed it to his gash. He stood up; the pain numbed, and limped toward his gawking friend. "What is it?!" He asked.

"D-d-d-dragon! Frozen in the ice!" Flame motions upward as Spyro's eyes widen with horror as he gazes at a black dragoness stuck in a huge wall of ice. The black dragoness was about their size, had more horns running along her face than the other three, and a skull like mark on her forehead.

"How did she get there?" Ember asked as she examined the dragoness more closely. "She looks our age... don't you think we would have known her from school?"

"Yeah!" Flame answered, "Spyro... who is this girl? I've never seen her in my life!"

"I don't know! I don't think I've ever seen her..." Spyro abruptly stops speaking. Several seconds pass before Spyro's eyes widen in shock. His face contorts with panic and worry and he screams. He grips his head in agony and drops to the ground, twisting and turning painfully.

"SPYRO! What's going on?" Flame yelled as he and Ember run over and kneel beside their friend. Suddenly, Spyro roars; but this roar seems to have a double voice to it. Flame and Ember back away. A magnificent blue aura surrounds him as he is literally levitated into the air. A thundering voice roars out through the caverns.

"Infit! Extraho of oraculum est evestigatus!"

"What the? Is that some sort of different language?! What's going on here?" Flame stammered as they continue to stare. Suddenly, the same blue glow appears from the ice. They turn around and stare wide eyed as the ice begins to crack.

"What have we done?" Ember cried.

END CHAPTER 1

Next time, Chapter 2- Shocking Revelations I; Enter Cynder


	3. Shocking Revelations I: Enter Cynder

**Author's Note: For those who want to know why Cynder was in a giant ice cube… well I can't tell you, that'd spoil another chapter! **

**Chapter 2- Shocking Revelations I; Enter Cynder**

"The ice is breaking! Maybe this will give us some answers!" Flame said.

"Are you mad? SHE'S BEEN FROZEN! How would she know what's going on?" Ember snapped. The ice begins to crack and rumble. "Duck and cover!" The two dragons hide behind a mound of snow as the ice explodes, shattering everywhere.

"Wait... what about Spyro! He's completely defenseless." Flame turned toward the spot where Spyro's floating and is astonished to see the shards harmlessly bouncing off his body. "What the…?" At this point, the lights die down and both Spyro and the black dragon fall to the ground with a thud.

Flame climbs out from the snow. "Is... is it over?"

"Looks like it. Is Spyro okay?"

"Yeah, and so is this other dragon. I really want some answers here!" Flame responds. Suddenly, he hears a rustling noise and jumps back; Spyro is stirring. "H-he's okay! Thank goodness."

"Ugh... wh-what happened? I remember staring at... THE BLACK DRAGON!" Spyro quickly rises to his feet and charges over to the black dragon. He slowly paces around her, as if he's examining her closely. "I-I-I remember."

Ember's smile quickly turns into a glare, "Remember what? Who is she? Why is she here? What's that mark on your front left paw? I WANT ANSWERS!"

"What mark? I never had any..." Spyro quickly gasps and stares at his hand. Embedded on it is a tattoo: two swords diagonally crossing over each other, with a serpent weaving between them. Spyro gently touches the mark, then yanks his hand back and yelps as a burning pain seers through him. "OW! Why did that happen?" He turns to speak again, but is interrupted by Flame.

"GUYS! GUYS! She's waking up!" Flame nudges Spyro and Ember and motions at the black dragoness who slowly gets to her feet. She grips her head, apparently in pain, and then quickly surveys the area in front of her.

"W-w-where am I? I-I-I remember leaving the temple, t-then a storm... and then nothing. How much time has passed?" She slowly turns around and lifts her head up, surveying the cavern. As she lowers her gaze onto Flame and Ember, she screams and jumps back. "W-who are you? D-do you know where I am?"

Flame's face twists in confusion. He stares at the dragoness before answering, "This is Ice Cavern. You know... the Peace Keeper's World."

The dragoness sends him a look of utter confusion and panic, "W-w-what's a Peace Keeper?" Flame's eyes widen in shock.

"Wait... how do you not know what a Peace Keeper is? Did you like, travel through time or something?" He asked, studying her closely.

Ember chuckles "Don't be ridiculous! The only people who have technology like that are the Professor and Red! And this dragon doesn't look like she'd work for an evil exile, does she?"

The dragon continues turning until she sees Spyro. Both their eyes widen when they meet. "SPYRO! You're here! Maybe YOU can tell me what's going on!"

Flame and Ember instantly stop their laughing and flash Spyro dark and angry looks. Ember roars, "YOU KNOW HER?!" Flame takes a couple of nervous steps back from Ember.

Spyro glances from the black dragon to his friends and back again. "Er... I... um... that is... yes. I don't know why, but when I saw her, my head exploded with all these strange memories. I don't understand why, but I suddenly have all these memories of some completely different life. It's as if I had a life before this one, but was reborn somehow. I had saved this dragon from an evil force... at least in the memories I did. One day, she left the home… in my memories. She said something about an item left in a cave. That day, a terrible storm hit, bringing with it massive amounts of wind, snow and hail. The cold must've frozen her and this entire cave." Ember nods and turns to the black dragoness, who is staring at them with an interested expression. Ember extends her hand.

"My name's Ember." She said. The dragon smiled and shook her hand. Flame also introduced himself. Then, the black dragon spoke.

"It's nice to meet you. My name's Cynder." She stood up and stretched her legs.

Spyro sighed, "We should go back to Nestor. He'll know what we should do." Flame and Ember nodded and followed. Cynder stared at him blankly. Spyro looked over his shoulder and noticed this; he crept back toward Cynder. "Just follow my lead and everything will go smoothly." He said, reassuringly.

Cynder nodded. Before Spyro could walk off, Cynder grabbed him and whispered, "Thanks for saving me." She quickly hugs him and runs off, leaving Spyro standing dumbstruck.

END CHAPTER 2

**Oooo… it's a good thing Ember didn't see that! What happens next? You'll have to stay tuned to find out!**

Next time, Chapter 3- Fighting the Uphill Battle


	4. Fighting the Uphill Battle

**Author's Note: This is the longest chapter to date! It's over 2,500 words! Here's where things get interesting!**

**Chapter 3- Fighting the Uphill Battle**  
NESTOR'S HOUSE, ARTISAN'S WORLD 1030 HOURS

We open at a rather large, mansion like house. The outside is painted all white and the roof is supported by rather large pillars. The pillars depict pictures of ancient dragon folklore and history. We cut to inside the house, where Spyro, Flame, Ember, Cynder and Nestor are seated in his personal study. Nestor is seated behind a large oak desk. Behind him are several stocked bookshelves carrying books from "The Tales of Alecto and Ametheus" to "Basic Light Magic Volumes I-XX". Nestor is eying Cynder suspiciously.

"So, you say Spyro and Cynder were engulfed by this magnificent blue energy, which also freed Cynder?"

"Yeah. At first it was incredibly painful, then it was relaxing, then there was a flash and it was over." Spyro answered.

"And you also say during that time, memories of what you think are a 'past life' flowed into your head?"

A small sweat drop ran down Spyro's forehead and he looked around nervously, "Yes. And, this strange mark appeared on my hand. Any explanation?" Spyro thrusts forward his paw. Nestor briefly examines it. When he touches the mark, Spyro jerks his hand back again. "OW! Don't touch it; it burns me when you do!"

"My apologies. May I see it again?" Spyro groaned and showed it to Nestor again. Nestor walks over to his bookshelf and grabs a book entitled "The Guide to Ancient Symbols." Nestor flips through the book until he finds a particular page. He stares at the page, then Spyro's paw, then the page again. His eyes widen in shock and horror. "No... i-i-impossible! It cannot be!"

Spyro's eagerly jumps out of his chair, "What? Am I cursed? Please don't tell me I'm cursed!"

Nestor looks it up, "You're far from cursed. That is the mark of the Ancient Filiolus!"

Flame slams the ground with his foot, "OH COME ON! It's that language that booming voice was speaking in Ice Cavern!"

Spyro turns to Flame, "What voice?"

Ember turns her attention to Cynder and Spyro, "When you two were in that magic, this loud angry voice spoke out in some language I've never heard of!"

Nestor answers, "It's the ancient language. What I said was that was the mark of the Ancient Gods. There's Dolor who prefers the name Tray, and Vic. There was once a third one, a girl named Isabelle. They spread their magic through creatures such as ourselves. But they also had children, who inherited most or all of their powers. 10,000 years ago, we magical creatures lived along side non-magical creatures or mortals. Their most recent child, Vraël, was doing poorly training under them. In his anger, he ran to an ancient temple and found his way to the center, where he discovered _it_."

Spyro looked eager and nervous. "What's 'it'"

Nestor paused and looked at them, "The very first... Dark Gem." This was followed by gasps and looks of horror from Spyro, Ember and Flame. "When he touched it, his mind and his bodily structure was altered. He turned evil and donned a new name, Severus. In his demented rage, he killed his wife and mother. Tray's response was horrifying. In his anger and madness, he casted a spell so powerful that it ripped the mortals and magical creatures into two separate dimensions. Isabelle's death SHOULD have stopped the birth flow... but all decedents of the gods bore that mark on some part of their body."

A large deafening bang is heard from a distance. The five dragons abruptly change their thoughts. Ember gets to her feet, "That sounded like an explosion!"

Spyro nodded grimly, "We've got company. Cynder, you stay with Nestor. Flame, see if you can find Hunter and Bianca. I don't know how many of these intruders there are. Hurry!"

Cynder growled at Spyro. A red aura surrounds her and Spyro grows wide-eyed as she unleashes a tremendous roar. "That was… incredible." He commented.

Cynder smiled, "I learned some things." Her smile creased into anger as she growled, "I'm fighting. Any objections?"

Spyro gulped. "N-n-no, Cynder."

Cynder breaks down the door and flies out the house. Spyro and Ember fly out after her. Flame flies into a portal inside the house.  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
ARTISAN VILLAGE 1105 HOURS

The three dragons land but have little time to speak when a random green dragon hurtles into them. They all fly back into the wall of a house. Spyro angrily glares at the dragon, "What was that about, Sam? Did you forget how to fly?" Cynder snickered at the comment.

"N-n-n-n-n-n-no... something worse... ACK! THEY'RE HERE!" Sam motions to a spot 20 yards away. Spyro, Ember and Cynder stare at their enemies with confused expressions. There are three of them. The first figure is a tall human dressed in a blue suit. He has black hair that is slightly below his neck. He is also wearing sunglasses. In his left hand is a gold staff, topped by a radiant silver orb. The staff has four half-triangle shaped rods holding the orb in place. The second figure appears to be a robot; however it is wearing clothing as if it holds a commanding position in an army. The third steps forward and Ember and Spyro stare in shock.

"Hello Spyro, did you miss me? I hope you know that a victory will be far from what you're achieving in this fight. Let me introduce you to my friends. This is Colonel (he motions to the robot) and THIS (he motions to the human) is Jonathan Scrimegour."

Spyro laughs. "You think we're afraid of YOU? Bring it on, old man!"

Red growls and pulls out his Ice Wand. "Bring it."

The three dragons and three intruders lunge at each other. Red fires an ice shard from his wand, which Spyro easily dodges. His tail suddenly glows yellow and he strikes Red with it. Red is zapped by electrical energy as Spyro stares at his tail. _How did I do that?_

"SPYRO... LOOK OUT!" Cynder extends her tail and grabs Colonel. Colonel smirks and pulls out a plasma energy saber. He strikes the tail with his weapon. Cynder releases her grip and roars as Colonel begins a frenzied series of slashes and jabs with the saber. One of his slashes manages to create a deep gash along Cynder's back. She screams as blood begins to drip from it and onto her tail.

"Cynder!" Spyro yells but is suddenly blasted by an enormous fireball from Scrimegour. He laughs then disappears, only to reappear behind Spyro and shoot him in the back with another fireball. The fireball burns Spyro's scales, their shimmering purple color scorched black. Spyro roars in agony, but has little time to recover as Ember is hurtled into him by a blast from Red's medallion.

Ember tries to get out a word as she catches her breath. "Since when can Red do that?" Spyro has no time to answer as he dives out of the way of Colonel, who slams against a wall after being struck by Cynder. Cynder shoots a black fireball at Colonel, but a blue circular barrier appears and the attack dies inches away from Colonel. Ember and Cynder stare in utter shock, "How the..." Suddenly a blindingly fast laser strikes Ember and Cynder in the back. Ember screams as she flies strait into Spyro again. Cynder turns and unleashes a jet of flames at the attacker, Scrimegour. He laughs before disappearing. Cynder looks around, confused before being struck in the cut in her back from an attack from Colonel. Cynder crashes into the ground. Spyro and Ember struggle to their feet, panting. They hear whimpers coming from Cynder as she limps toward them.

"Ready to give up?" Asked Red.

"Spyro... this is hopeless! They're too strong!" Ember cried. Spyro glared at her.

"NO! I will not give up... not until these guys are defeated!"

Cynder struggles to catch her breath. "But how?"

"Well... we're waiting! What are you going to do? Is the small purple dragon afraid of a little robot? And to think, the great 'hero' can't even lay a hit on a human!" Red sneered. Scrimegour laughs and pushes a section of his hair back behind his head.

"It's only natural... I mean, if he had my lovely weapon, I'd be helpless." Scrimegour taunted.

_His voice is so kind and warm. He must be able to trick people with it!_ Ember thought. She stares at Spyro; his claws begin to dig into the earth as his temper begins to rise. "Spyro! Don't let them psyche you out! Keep fighting!"

"Yes Spyro, even though you are greatly outmatched, keep fighting! Why kill yourself listening to your little girlfriend, when you can surrender yourself to us and end this little skirmish before we hurt her, or this other girl." Red's evil grin widens as Spyro hunches lower to the ground, growling in frustration. Suddenly, Colonel's eyes grow wide and he anxiously speaks to Red.

"Do you see that? Tell me I didn't just see that!"

"NOT NOW COLONEL! I'm busy taunting the little baby. He's so weak and..." But Red doesn't have time to finish his sentence as his jaw drops in astonishment. Spyro is now radiantly glowing red, while steam rises off the surface of his tensed body. He lets out a tremendous roar and charges forward. All the villains are dumbstruck as Spyro leaps into the air.

"Is he mad? He can't possibly..." But Scrimegour is quickly silenced as he turns toward his attacker. Spyro is now hovering in mid-air. He pulls his two hands together as a red aura of energy begins to form within them. Suddenly, firework-like explosions appear everywhere, crashing the villains into the ground. What happens next astonishes everyone. Spyro thrusts his arms apart and a huge circular wall of pure fire explodes out from him, hitting all the villains and sending them careening into the wall.

"That... that's incredible!" Ember says, beaming with excitement.

"What the heck was that?" Ember turns her head and sees Flame fly back. Seconds later, Hunter and Bianca emerge from a nearby portal.

"That... was a fury attack. I'm surprised he still remembers it, especially if this is his 'second life'." Cynder answers. Spyro walks back to the other, panting.

"Spyro, y-y-you did it!" Ember joyfully jumped up and down at the sight of the KO'd enemies.

"I-I-I did? T-t-that was me? But how?" Spyro stares at the tattoo on his hand, which is now burning harder then when he touched it, "Does this mark have anything to do with it?"

Bianca looks astonished at the mark. "But that's..."

"...the mark of the ancient gods I know. We're still confused as to why it's..." Spyro stops in mid-sentenced as his friend's eyes widen in pure terror. "What... what is it? Are they stirring?"

"Congratulations on defeating my weak counterparts. However, I need you to come with me. Any objections and I am programmed to take you by force." Spyro slowly turns around, trembling uncontrollably. Hovering in front of them is another robot, much taller than Colonel. It has sleek black armor with a ruby in the center of his body. His hands and face are gray, and topped by a black helmet shaped like a large circle inside a diamond. The helmet also has a ruby in the center.

"W-w-who are you?" Spyro asked, slowly backing into a nearby house's wall.

The robot spoke. His voice was smooth and clear, showing absolutely no signs of emotion whatsoever. "I am High Max. And I have orders by my superiors for one purple dragon to be brought before them, alive. That... is where you come in. If you answer know, I will take you by force."

"SPYRO! You can't let him push you around like that! Show him why you're the great hero around here!" Yelled Hunter.

"Right... I will! High Max, you just messed with the wrong dragon!" Spyro yelled as he leaps at High Max. His tail glows bright blue and he slams High Max, which is followed by a fury of ice shards and ice breath. Spyro lands satisfied that his attacker is frozen solid, and smirks. But when the dust clears, everyone's cheers turn to horror as they see High Max; still floating there and completely unharmed.

"Was that an attack? I'm sorry, but it will take more than that to stop me." High Max began to float towards Spyro. Spyro quickly shuffled his feet, and ran.

"HELP ME! A crazy robot is after me! Help! Help!" At this yelling, several disturbed dragons emerge from more distant houses, no doubt roused by the fighting.

"sigh Why must my target have for legs... no matter." High Max cups his hands together. "With this move..." High Max thrusts his arms apart. The tiny energy ball suddenly grown 10 times its size, and begins chasing after Spyro with intense speed.

"SPYRO! WATCH OUT!" Cynder screamed but it was too late. The energy ball ran Spyro over. Everyone gasped as a terrifying, ear-bleeding scream of pain was heard. High Max showed no signs of happiness at his victory. Scrimegour, who finally woke up, walks over to Spyro. His entire body is covered in burns and bruises from the attack.

"About time you showed up!" Scrimegour yelled as he examined Spyro. "The prophecy has started! If we don't get him back quick, we'll all be screwed." Scrimegour's staff glowed. A swirling blue vortex appears next to him. He smiles at Spyro's wide-eyed friends. "Well kids, it's been fun, but we've got business to attend to. But don't worry, you'll see your friend... but not how you've EVER know him before! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Scrimegour slams his staff on the ground. Red and Colonel's unconscious bodies fly through the portal. High Max floats into it, still keeping an emotionless face. Scrimegour laughed harder as Spyro's body was lifted in the air.

Cynder screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! SPYRO! I... won't... lose... you... AGAIN!" She took off with an unexpected burst of speed and anger. Scrimegour quickly stopped laughing and grabbed Spyro. Just as Cynder was a foot away from them, Scrimegour jumped into the portal; hit leather shoe just missing the tip of Cynder's talons. She crashes into the ground with a loud "thud." Everything goes silent. The silence continues for several minutes, and then a loud whimper is heard. The astonished crowd turns toward Cynder, as a single spot on the grass suddenly becomes wet.

"Is she... crying?" Flame asked. His question was soon answered as another ear-splitting screech was heard, followed by a terrifying round of sobs. Everyone slowly backs away as Hunter, Flame and Bianca run toward her.

"Who is this dragon?" Bianca asked.

"Err... long story. Right now, we NEED to go to Nestor; we have to help Spyro!" Hunter and Bianca nod in agreement and take off. Flame hoists Cynder on his back and slowly walks off. Ember meanwhile is still standing there, as if in some sort of trance.

_What she just did... there's no way... could she really... love... Spyro?_

END CHAPTER 3

**Oh no! Gate has taken Spyro? What will become of the purple dragon? Find out next time…**

Next time, Chapter 4- Gate, the Mastermind


	5. Gate, the Mastermind

**Author's Note: Alright, this is the moment some people are either excited about, or will dread. Depends on your LOVE of Spyro. **

**Chapter 4- Gate, the Mastermind**  
CORE LAB, GATE'S LABORATORY 1145 HOURS

We find ourselves in the same room as before. Gate is typing at his holographic computer. Suddenly, the electronic doors beep and slide open. Severus floats in. Gate grins smugly. "I take it they're back? It took them awhile."

"Ah ha ha. But time does not matter when a mission is completed!" Severus answers. "They are indeed back. I shall see them in." Severus motions to the door. High Max floats in, a cage created by pure electricity floating in after him. Spyro lies inside, unconscious. Scrimegour, Colonel and Red sulk in behind them.

"I take it all went well?" Asked Gate.

Severus shook his head, a dark grin still marked on his face. "It seems the dragon has triggered the prophecy. He managed to knock out all three of those buffoons with a giant blast of fire energy." Gate turns to them.

"Well... explain your failures."

"T-the dragon didn't even KNOW that he was performing the attack! I tell you, Vic is one step ahead of us!" Scrimegour yelled angrily.

"He's ALWAYS one step ahead of us," Severus responded as his happiness quickly turns to anger. "As long as they have the Prognosticus... they know what can happen; every single possibility."

"So the book also tells the future if our plan succeeds?" Gate asked.

"Without a doubt." Severus answers, smiling again.

"Pardon my intrusion, Master Gate, but the weapon is waking up." High Max motions to his cage where Spyro slowly lifts his head up and looks around. His eyes widen in shock as he stares at High Max.

"YOU! Get ready to..." But as Spyro tries to attack, Gate presses a small red button. A blue metal collar, now attached to Spyro's neck, glows brightly. Spyro howls as he is electrocuted.

"Silence, dragon! Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Gate, the leader of this operation. This (he motions to Severus) is my assistant and adviser, Nightmare Severus." Gate's evil grin widens.

_SEVERUS! That's the crazy god Nestor told us about. Wait... was I taken t-t-to the mortal's dimension?_ Spyro thought.

"Yes, you are in the Mortal Realms, a dimension with technology DECADES ahead of yours." Severus said, he smiled at Spyro and winked.

"But how did you..."

"...Read your mind? Simple, magic! I can do it, others can't. That's the way it works." Severus turns to Gate. "Shall I begin the commissioning process, my liege?" 

"Yes, and make sure to use your magic to 'help' our guest." Gate answered. And with that, he dismissed them.

LABORATORY 2A, GATE'S LAB 1200 HOURS

Severus leads Spyro into a room similar to the Core Lab, but slightly smaller. A giant machine hangs from the ceiling. It has three large tractor beams hanging from its circular core, all angled to the center of the room, where a table sits on a raised platform. Severus throws Spyro on the table and throws down a switch. Instantly, Spyro's arms and legs are encased in large metal clamps.

"W-w-what are you gonna do to me?" Spyro asked. A small tear falls from his left eye onto the table. Severus merely throws his head back in laughter.

"Brainwashing of course! Ah ha ha ha ha!" Severus throws down another switch. The machine's core begins flashing purple and red, as the tractor beams begin glowing with energy. "Now, for my own power!" Severus thrusts his hands above his head, as a black and purple beam of energy encircles the Mind Bender. The tractor beams suddenly fire out giant black and red waves. The machine begins to spin the tractor beams as their energy converges into a giant ball floating above Spyro. After several minutes, the beams stop, and the core opens up, revealing a fourth beam. The beam fires, pushing the energy beam toward Spyro.

"No... NO... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The entire room is encased in a blinding white light.

"Ah ha ha ha. Welcome to the Enigma Project, Spyro."

END CHAPTER 4

**Uh oh, things are looking bleak. Could they get much worse? Find out!**

Next time, Chapter 5- The Strangest School Day


	6. The Strangest School Day

**Author's Note: We would like to apologize for the constant use of CAPS words. Now, here's the next part!**

**Chapter 5- The Strangest School Day**  
MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE DRAGON REALMS...

"GONE! GONE?!" That was all Nestor could say to the three dragonlings. His startled expression said it all. "But, he's an excellent fighter. How could he have lost?"

"It was that High Max guy. He was INVINCIBLE! Nothing Spyro tried did ANYTHING!" Flame answered. Nestor looked at a nearby clock. "Oh dear... I'm afraid we'll have to leave this conflict unsolved for a little while. You have school!"

"But... but..." Flame tried to protest, but Nestor continued.

"Cynder, we're going to register you. Flame and Ember will show you. Can you just get over this little incident?" Nestor turned to Cynder, who was now staring at the large cut on her back.

"sniff If I must..."

"Good! Now, get going!" Nestor waved his hand, and the three of them left. We cut to a distant shot of them walking. The shot suddenly turns infrared and computerized as three targeting cursors appears over them, followed by the words TARGETS CONFIRMED. Then, a voice speaks...

"Command, this is Scouter. I have confirmed kidnapping of the purple dragon, and have a targeting lock on the other three. They're heading toward school." A few beeps and some static is heard followed by a smooth, cool voice.

"Roger, Scouter. Wait for school to end, I'll signal you if the mission is to start early."

"Right; Scouter out." Static is heard and our shot fades to the school.

CLASSROOM 213 1130 HOURS

"Class... we have a new student today. This (the teacher motions to Cynder), is Cynder." In the murmurs of the class, filled with "Who's she," "Never seen her before," and "Where's Spyro," Cynder turns and whispers to Ember.

"So, what exactly do we do here?"

"When dragons reach age 12, they start studying combat techniques, mastery of elements, and magic." Ember responded.

"That seems up my alley," Cynder said, grinning. At this point, the teacher turns to Flame and Ember.

"Say, Flame, where IS our friend Spyro today?" At this, a tall red dragon stood up from the back of the room. Ember and Flame groaned.

"Who's he?" Cynder asked. She didn't have time for an answer, as the dragon began to speak in a sniveling, mocking voice.

"He's probably too chicken to learn these violent moves!" He said with a satisfied smirk on his face. Ember leans toward Cynder, a distasteful look on her face.

"That's Zane... he's a real jerk to most of us, Spyro included. He thinks he's better than everyone else. And that..." Ember motions to a blue dragoness about her size, snickering at Zane's comment, "Is Alicia, his girlfriend. Those guys..." she motions to a tall green dragon, a short blue dragon, a yellow dragoness taller than Zane, and a sky blue dragoness about Flame's size, "Are his annoying friends. There names are Thorn (the green dragon), Frieze (the blue dragon), Alix (the yellow dragoness), and Eliza (the sky blue dragoness). They're all a bunch of bullies who take pride in picking on us."

"That's enough, Zane! Flame, where is Spyro?"

Flame sweated nervously, trying to think up a lie. Finally, he stammered, "H-h-he... was involved in an... err... um... accident! Yeah, an accident! He... err... um... might have... broken his leg! Yeah! They're examining it right now, Ms. Rouge!" Ms. Rouge eyed him suspiciously, and then finally nodded.

"Very well, take your seats. Cynder, you can have Spyro's seat for now." Flame let out a huge, exasperated sigh, then followed Ember and Cynder. As Cynder turned around to sit, there was a large gasp from the class.

_OH NO! I forgot... the gash from Colonel! It's still there! What do I do?_ Quickly, Alicia laughed and spoke in a shrieking, laughing tone.

"Ms. Rouge! Cynder's bleeding!" Ms. Rouge quickly looked up from her desk at Alicia.

"Is this true, Cynder?" Just as Cynder was about to open her mouth, a blasting sound is heard from outside. "What in the name of..." The entire school suddenly begins rumbling tremendously. The various dragons all run toward the door, eager to know what happened, except Flame, Cynder and Ember.

"That sound is all too similar to the one we hear this morning." Ember said, the anger in her voice rising.

"Who do you reckon it is this time?" Flame growled, hunching low as if preparing to fly.

"I don't know, but we're gonna find out!" Cynder responded. The three break open a nearby window and fly out of it to the front of the school. There, all the confused and scared dragons are backed against the wall. Red is standing there, carrying a large red crystal. A mysterious black aura swirls around it. Scrimegour is next to him, his scepter pointed at the crowd. "YOU!" Cynder yelled and took off toward Scrimegour. Flame and Ember lunge after her, trying to stop her.

"Nobody move until we have finished up here. Got it?" Scrimegour shouted. The crowd nodded in unison. "Good. Now, Red... what the?" But it was too late, Cynder slammed into Scrimegour, knocking him to the ground with a thud. Again, we cut to a distant shot of this, which quickly turns into an infrared computerized image. Scouter's voice begins to speak.

"Command, we have a problem. The enemy has sent two of his thugs to place one of his Shield Generators in the Dragon Realms. I'm going in."

"Don't forget to get the targets. Command out." There's static and we cut back to Cynder. Scrimegour is standing up, the orb on his scepter glowing with energy.

"Ah, yes, you're the diving girl; the one who tried to save your little boyfriend from being sent to MY dimension. This time, you won't escape me!" Scrimegour shoots several fireballs from his wand. Cynder expertly dodges them, but suddenly finds herself right in front of the huddled crowd. "Careful." Scrimegour said in his cheerful voice, "We wouldn't want to hurt the innocent ones, would we?" Scrimegour's scepter glows even brighter. He raises it to attack, when suddenly...

"You'll be hurting NO ONE today, Jon!" A black blur rams into Scrimegour sending him flying into a rock. The creature lands and everyone gasps in horror. They are looking at a dragon, but an odd one. One half of him is a terrifying shade of black, but the other is a titanium robotic body. As opposed to a hand, he has a pincer consisting of four razor-sharp blades. He also has a red bionic eye where a normal one should be. The dragon is carrying a scepter in his real hand that looks exactly like Scrimegour's, except it's black instead of gold. 

"R-R-Red... hurry." Scrimegour whispers, weakly. Red nods and slams the Dark Gem into the ground. It instantly glows dark black and the earth begins shaking violently. Suddenly, a colossal metal fortress rises out from the Dark Gem as everyone gasps and stares in shock and horror. The fortress has a large, purple diamond as its logo. Red and Scrimegour disappear behind the doors. Second later, several nightmares appear around the perimeter.

"This is bad. Very bad indeed." The cyborg dragon says. He turns to our heroes. "You three!"

Flame looks at himself, Cynder and Ember, "Who... us?"

"YES YOU! Come with me, now! There's not a moment to lose."

Flame looks around nervously. "B-b-but..."

"Cease your talking immediately. Follow me!" The dragon motions to a pathway. Our heroes glance nervously at each other then reluctantly follow. As they walk off into the distance, Zane pokes his head out from the crowd.

"Hmm... I don't know what those wise guys are up to; but no one leaves Zane Bluefire out of ANYTHING! Alicia! Crew! We're following them, now!" The other dragons nod to each other and laugh. They charge off after them.

END CHAPTER 5!

**A mysterious new person! Is he a friend, or foe? Why does he need Flame, Cynder and Ember? And who is his mysterious master? And most importantly, what happened to him? Find out…**

Next time, Chapter 6- One Stranger, Two Dimensions, Three Heroes


	7. The Adventure Begins!

**Author's Note: The adventure is about to start! Here's the next part!**

**Chapter 6- One Stranger, Two Dimensions, Three Heroes**  
UNKNOWN LOCATION, FORGOTTEN REALMS 1330 HOURS

They arrive at a giant metal building. Ember nudges Flame and motions to the logo on the door. "It's that tattoo on Spyro's hand!" She whispered.

"The mark of the ancients. Yes, we know." The black dragon responded. He walks up to the door then turns left to a small red computer screen. He touches his pincer to it; this is followed by a male computer voice.

"IDENTITY CONFIRMED. WELCOME HOME, DR." The doors slide open and the dragon motions inside. The three heroes exchange nervous glances before being pushed in by the dragon. He walks inside and the doors close. We switch to a bush near the laboratory. Zane pokes his head out.

"Some place! We'll fly up and see what they're doing through that window!" He smirked and took off, the other dragons following. We cut back to the inside, where our heroes are walking down a hallway. Ember turns to the stranger and begins to speak, when she's interrupted.

"My name? Lelenthal; Dr. Jonathan Lelenthal." He said. Flame went wide-eyed at this.

"B-b-b-but, you were supposed to have died in an explosion 15 years ago!" He cried. Ember nodded at this. Dr. Lelenthal growled as they turned a corner. A small robot, with one wheel instead of a leg zooms past them.

"I faked my death so I could work without interruption from annoying common-folk like you. When that accident occurred, I was warped into a parallel dimension. The same dimension," He pauses as he takes a deep breath, "where your friend is now." He walks up to a much larger door and presses his pincer to the screen again. It slides open and they arrive in a control tower. There are several computer screen everywhere, the main one, on the wall to their left, is 70 ft in height. A large keyboard is arranged at its bottom. Next to the computer is a large, portal-shaped machine. Opposite the computer is a large window of equal height. Dr. Lelenthal continued his story as he typed on the keyboard, which had holographic keys that were touch-sensitive. "When I arrived there, I was severed in half by the explosion. But these two human scientists, Dr. Jason and Dr. Christopher Nitros made this." He motions to his cybertronic half. "Since then, I've been traveling between the dimensions using this (he motions to the portal-shaped machine). I work as a representative for the ancient gods; delivering messages to them from that dimension. This dimension does not really know about these gods. Pity. Speaking of which..."

Dr. Lelenthal turns his head to the machine, a swirling blue portal now appearing. He turns to our heroes and says, "There's someone who would like to speak with you." There is a large white flash and out steps a robot. The three heroes jump back, startled. The robot has all black armor, similar to High Max. But his face is white; it has the same color as Scrimegour's. His helmet is black except for a sapphire emerald on the top of the helmet. One other odd thing about the robot is it has long red hair that comes out of the helmet in a ponytail like way. "This..." Dr. Lelenthal began, "is Vic." Ember and Flame gasp in astonishment at their mysterious visitor. He turns and walks toward them, staring at them intently. Finally, he speaks.

"Ah, yes. Ember and Flame. We are most... disappointed by what had just happened." He began. Flame and Ember exchanged confused looks. Vic turns to Cynder. "Cynder, it's good to see you again after all this time. It seems Severus's storm did not damage you too badly." Cynder nods. Ember suddenly yells out.

"YOU KNOW HIM?" She screams.

"Yeah, we met a couple of times before I was frozen." Cynder answered. She turns back to Vic. Vic motions to Dr. Lelenthal who presses a button on the keyboard. A digital image of earth appears on it.

"This," He began, "is the main planet of life in the mortal realms; the dimension where Spyro is. It is made up of several regions; The Mushroom Kingdom (about a quarter of the landmass on earth flashes red), Mobius (a slightly smaller portion flashes red), Kanto and its surrounding regions (a portion about the same size as the first flashes), and Monsteropolis (the remaining part flashes red). We've arranged for you to go to this dimension using my Dimensional Jumper (he motions to his machine again). We are sending you to an area filled with other heroes with experience in this dimension. However, to get to this dimension, you must travel through Flipside."

"What's Flipside?" Ember asked.

"A world that exists between the two dimensions. We've arranged for one of our representatives to meet you there and escort you." Vic responded. "Your job is to invade Gate's Laboratory..."

"Wait, who's Gate?" Cynder asked her eyes unable to stay focused on one thing in the room.

"The mastermind of the kidnapping. You didn't think RED was behind this did you?" Dr. Lelenthal turned to Flame and Ember; sweat drops sliding down their heads.

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe..." Ember answered, rolling her eyes. Dr. Lelenthal sighed as he pressed a button on his keyboard. The portal's color turned to black.

"This will take you to Flipside, hurry up!" He commanded. The all looked nervously at one another.

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" Flame asked. Cynder slapped him.

"Don't question this! We're doing this... for Spyro." She sad, sadness filling her voice. She drooped her head and walked silently to the portal, pausing briefly to glance at Vic. "Is it really going to happen?"

"I cannot change the Prognosticus. It will... don't worry; follow your heart and all will end well." She nodded and walked into the portal. Flame and Ember gave themselves confused looks and charged after her. "Well, Jon, shall we adjourn to the video-conference room? We must relay the news."

"Yes, sir!" Dr. Lelenthal bolted out of the room. Vic slowly walked out of the room, pausing to glance at the portal.

_They'll be fine; as long as our two agents arrive on cue, they'll be fine._ The doors slid shut behind him. Suddenly, the sound of broken glass is heard. Zane flies into the room. His face boiling with anger.

"I KNEW IT! That rat Spyro isn't hurt! He's going to play 'hero' again! WELL NOT THIS TIME! Come one, we're going to the mortal realms!" The other dragons grinned as Zane flew in the portal. They flew in after him. We cut to an aerial shot of the lab, loud laughing can be heard. "I'll save the day this time! Then I'll get all the fame and attention! ME... ZANE!"

END CHAPTER 6

**So… who are these heroes? Well, you'll be surprised to know they're not the ones you expected them to be! The stardom goes to those who play second fiddle to the title characters! **

Next time, Chapter 7- Flipside and Beyond; the Adventure Begins


	8. Flipside and Beyond!

**Author's Note: A shorter chapter. Let's get going!**

**Chapter 7- Flipside and Beyond; the Adventure Begins**  
FLIPSIDE 1ST FLOOR 1400 HOURS

A large swirling portal appears next to a fountain. The three heroes stumble out of it. They stand up and look around, gawking in amazement at the sights of this dimension. "This place... it's so... different from our home." Ember said. 

"Hey, you three!" A voice echoed at them from a distance. Cynder looks around and sees a small girl walking up to them. She is wearing glasses and dressed in a white outfit with brown pants. "You guys are those three dragons, am I right? Listen, um, you're to come with me, 'K?"

"Are you our escort?" Cynder asked, stepping forward as if to show a small touch of leadership within the group.

"Yeah, I got a memo regarding it. Name's Nastasia, 'K? We're, um, going to go to the portals on Flipside Tower, if you don't mind." Suddenly, a growling noise is heard. Flame gives off a 'my fault' look.

"I think I'm hungry. We've done a lot in one morning!" Flame looked towards a yellow building. It has a sign with a pot on it. "I think that place sells food."

"Not exactly. You can make food out of items there. You don't have any items, am I right?" Flame nodded. "And the mortal realms use different currencies from your dimension; so you're out of, er, luck." Nastasia turned and walked toward an arrow. An elevator appears and opens up. "Come now, we mustn't fall behind schedule." The three dragons exchange confused looks.

"This dimension sure is strange." Ember said. And the walk forward into the elevator. A few seconds later, Zane flies out of the portal and smack into the nearby wall. He falls down in the fountain as the other dragons laugh it him.

"THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" He said, trying to shake the water off of him. "Let's fly up! Maybe we'll beat them to that stinking portal!" Alicia rolled her eyes and jumped into the air, flying in the direction of a church-like structure standing atop Flipside. There are three portals there; a pink one, a black one, and a blue one. Alix turns to Zane.

"All those portal lead to the mortal realms, Zane. The question is, which do we think they'll take?" Thorn snorted and laughed.

"That's an easy one, stupid; they took a black portal to get here, so they'll take one again! Come on, anyone with half a brain and a spoonful of common sense could have figured that out!" Alix gritted her teeth.

"At least I'm not the one who thought that 'item shop' or whatever it was called, was edible!" Alix said in retaliation. Alicia pushed the two's snouts shut.

"Quit having a poorly-made dissing contest, you're both losers in our opinion! Now get going!" Alix and Thorn look at each other, then shake hands and fly into the portal. Zane quickly spots a large bag on the ground. He picks it up and opens revealing tons of sparkling coins.

"YOWZA! This must be the currency I heard that Spyro-colored girl talking about! We're RICH! Ha ha ha!" He flies into the portal. A few minutes later, an elevator appears next to the portals. Nastasia and the three heroes emerge from it.

"So, er, you're satisfied with the coins, 'K?" The glance at each other.

"Yeah! They should help." Ember answered. She surveyed the three portals. "We take the black one... right?" Nastasia shook her head.

"No, the pink one will take you to Peach's Castle. That's where you want to go. Good luck, you three! Don't let Severus succeed in his plans, 'K?"

Flame appears shaken. "I thought this 'Gate' person was behind it, now its Severus; that unholy god Nestor mentioned!" Flame smacks his forehead before walking through the pink portal. The two dragons exchange 'typical Flame' looks before following him.

END CHAPTER 7 

**Whoops, looks like Zane picked the wrong portal! But now it's time to meat the team of heroes to help!**

Next time, Chapter 8- Starting the Battle; Allies


	9. Starting the Battle: Allies

**Author's Note: It's time to meet the characters that will accompany the three dragons. Prepare to be surprised!**

**Chapter 8- Starting the Battle; Allies**  
UNKNOWN LOCATION 1415 HOURS

The scene opens in a large living room/entry hall. It has several leather couches, one plasma screen TV, bean bag chairs, and several people sitting in them. The first is a girl with blond hair, wearing a pink dress, and a crown. Next to her is a tall mustached man in green and blue overalls. Next to him is a black hedgehog who is seated next to a yellow mouse-like creature, and a pink puffball.

"We've been sitting here watching TV forever! When did Vic say they'd be coming?" The puffball turned to the black hedgehog.

"Hmph. He said any minute." The puffball made an angry face.

"You said that three hours ago!" There was a loud banging noise that could be heard coming from upstairs, followed by a yell.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A minute later, a round figure wearing a white sheet, a party hat and a ribbon-like tie ran out of a room. He was carrying a DS. "Why didn't you tell me it was 'national make portals in Doopliss's room day,' slick?" Doopliss turned to the girl.

"That must be the 'company' we're expecting. It means you get to go and stop that Gate person now!" The yellow mouse jumped out of his seat and started dancing.

"FINALLY! We've been waiting since... what... 3 a.m. in the morning!" The girl turned to the mouse with an angry face.

"That wouldn't have happened if SOMEBODY (her yell was directed at the kitchen) didn't crash through our ceiling!" 

**Meanwhile, in Doopliss's Bedroom…**

Flame, Ember and Cynder are thrown out of the portal into the opposite wall. Cynder stands up first and looks around. "It looks like we're in someone's bedroom. But... what's that?" She points to a television. Flame walks up to it and presses the button marked POWER.

"It's a TV. The Professor has tons of these in his lab... but they usually just show stuff on security cameras." Ember meanwhile is lying on the bed turning the lamp on and off repeatedly.

"This is such a comfy bed! You'd think we were in a castle or something!" She gets up and walks to the door. "I think I hear voices in the distance. Let's go, maybe these 'allies' are waiting for us!" Flame nods and turns off the TV. Cynder closes the closet doors and walks up to them.

"Weird," she proclaims, "This person only has bed sheets in his closet. Does this dimension celebrate Halloween everyday?" They walk out the door and down the hall to the staircase. They don't have to go far before they see a girl with blond hair and a pink dress spot them.

"That's them! WAKE UP, KIRBY!! They're ACTUALLY here!" She pokes a pink puffball that slowly gets to his feet. He yawns as he speaks.

"Is it dinner time yet?" Suddenly, a yellow mouse-like creature runs up the stairs to them. It has two red dots on its cheeks, two pointy ears, and a lightning bolt-shaped tail. It sniffs them before turning to the girl.

"Yup... three dragons! Just like Vic said!" Ember tries to open her mouth, but Kirby speaks first.

"Wait... that Pikachu can talk?!" Kirby asks the girl. She giggles and pulls out a small cartridge in her pocket. It has a shark label on it.

"We Gamesharked him... any other questions?"

"Just one..." Ember begins, "WHERE THE HECK ARE WE?!" She jumps off the balcony and glides down to the girl. Cynder and Flame exchange nervous glances, before deciding to use the stairs. Doopliss instantly sees this and runs in front of the girl. He pulls out a broken umbrella, which is full of holes.

"BACK! Nobody touches Princess Peach! Don't make me use this!" Ember lands in front of Doopliss and turns to Peach. Peach meets her glare with one of her own. The two continue to stare each other down until Peach finally speaks.

"Well, if you must know, this is my castle! You're in the Mushroom Kingdom!" She starts. Flame leans over to Cynder and whispers.

"That's that first place Dr. Lelenthal mentioned to us. How did he know we'd be sent here?" He asked.

"Vic probably told him. Didn't he say he worked for Vic?" Cynder responded. Peach cleared her throat and continued speaking.

"You guys are here because Gate took your friend, right?" They nodded, Cynder tried to resist the urge to cry every time this was mentioned. "Well, we've all had people taken from us too. We think that Gate's trying to build an army of well known heroes, to prove an equal match for all of us."

"B-but how did he know about Spyro if we're in a different dimension?" Flame asked. Peach shook her head.

"We're still not sure about that. But we know Vic and Tray personally, and they told us everything that was happening. If your friend stays in Gate's hands for too long, the results could be deadly." Cynder lowered her head and closed her eyes, thinking.

_An image of Tray appears in front of her. His voice is similar to that of High Max. "You have to be ready to fight your friend when the time comes, and you have to be willing to accept sacrifice when the time comes; else you risk loosing him forever."___

_"How will I know when that time's come?" Cynder asked.___

_"Trust me, you will. I know everything, after all." Tray briefly smirked before vanishing._

"So that's it..." She whispered. Ember turns to her.

"I beg your pardon?" She asked. Cynder cocked her head back, startled.

"Er... nothing... nothing at all." She turned back to Peach, who was still speaking.

"...these guys all want to try and defeat Gate for personal reasons..." The black hedgehog spoke up.

"Not Kirby, he's just here for free food." Kirby looked slightly embarrassed. The hedgehog starts speaking again, his voice smooth and calm, "Name's Shadow. Hopefully you're not too stunned by the technology here, because it's always upgrading... fast." The guy in the overalls stood up.

"I'm-a Luigi! My brother and I have been saving the Mushroom Kingdom for... like... 20 years or so! You can bet that I want to save him from Gate." Doopliss turns around and introduces himself. The Pikachu speaks up.

"I'm Pikachu. Most Pokémon can only say their names, but I was lucky enough to meet Peach who had a Gameshark on her! It's a pleasure to..." Everyone suddenly fell on the floor as a loud roar echoed from the kitchen. Luigi hid under the sofa, Flame doing the same action. Cynder tried to speak, paralyzed by fear.

"W-w-what was that? Was it another d-d-dragon?" Suddenly, a deep low voice shouted into the living room.

"GRAH! PEACHY... WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME WE WERE OUT OF TOMATO SAUCE!!!?" Seconds later, a glass jar flies out of the kitchen at breakneck speeds. It hits Cynder square in the stomach and breaks, cutting into her flesh. Cynder merely continues to stare into the kitchen as she swipes at the cut with her paw, attempting to clean off the blood. A tall, green turtle/dinosaur creature stomps out of the kitchen. He has a large, spiked shell on his back and he's wearing spiked dog-collars on his neck and arms. "How am I supposed to make my FAMOUS Koopa Pizza IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANY DAMN...?" He stops and stares at the scene in front of him. His attention turns to Cynder, meeting his angry face with one of her own. He smiles and pumps his fist in the air. "Heh! Looks like I've still got that pinpoint accuracy! I SHOULD become a baseball pitcher!"

The awkward silence would not start. Instead, Cynder leaped at the creature and tackled him. "Who do you think you are just being able to hurt me like that?" The creature threw his head back, and lurched it forward, unleashing a jet of hot, red flames. The three dragons were awestruck at this as Cynder was propelled into the wall. Luigi and Flame ran from the sofa and faced the turtle. Suddenly, a loud slapping noise could be heard. The turtle was crouched low, getting slapped silly by Peach. "And don't you ever do that again, Bowser!"

"B-b-but Peachy, I didn't know..." Bowser tried to think up an excuse, but nothing came.

"Do you WANT your castle back?!" She yelled. Bowser's expression turned to anger as he stood up.

"YES! YES! YES! Lousy no good scientist! Shows up in the MIDDLE of the night and blows me up out of my OWN CASTLE! Who does he think he is?!" Bowser yelled out. Ember, without thinking, punches Bowser in the face. He stared at her, dumbstruck.

"D... Don't ever hurt my friend AGAIN!" She snarled at him. He stepped back.

"Oh... these were those dragons Vic told us to be expecting." A small sweat drop rolled down Bowser's face.

"You can never make a good first impression can you, Bowser?" Luigi exclaims. He whispers to Flame and he chuckles in amusement. His eyes suddenly lit up.

"Thanks for reminding me! I was watching Doopliss's TV when we arrived, and it mentioned something about a 'Star Carnival' tonight in this place called Toad Town." Peach smacked herself on the head.

"D'oh! I completely forgot! You guys shouldn't start your adventure tonight; you should really come to the carnival!" Peach reached in her pocket and pulled an envelope. "We've got three EXTRA tickets!" Cynder beamed with excitement.

"Oh wow... a carnival! And in this dimension!" She happily took the envelope from Peach's hand. Peach looks at her watch.

"We should get going; they're going to start the festivities soon!" Peach grabs a jacket and trots out the door. Bowser, Shadow, Pikachu, Doopliss, and Luigi followed. Cynder and Ember went next. Flame slowly walked after them, speaking to himself out loud.

"A carnival! That's such a bad idea! Am I the only one who thinks that there will be trouble at that carnival?" There's a pause; crickets starts chirping. "sigh I guess so." He charges out of the castle. We cut to a shot from the castle roof of Flame running after the others. An unseen person starts speaking.

"Yeah... they made it here. Wait... you think WHAT'S going to happen at the carnival? Him? BAH! I've defeated him TWICE! Yes, I'll go. I'll... uh... stick to the shadows until I feel the time is right. Okay. Maverick Hunter out."

END CHAPTER 8 

**Looks like Vic's got another person watching our heroes! Who is he? You'll have to find out…**

Next time, Chapter 9- Zero, More than a Number


	10. Zero, More than a Number

**Author's Note: This is another long chapter. **

**Chapter 9- Zero, More than a Number**  
**TOAD TOWN 1900 HOURS**

Dusk was beginning to descend on the town, but there were flashing neon lights everywhere, advertising the carnival's appearance. Stage lights were also illuminating things from booths to rides to a large amphitheater constructed at the edge of the carnival. The three dragons walked at the end of the large group, taking in all the sights. Children were running around waving prizes and allowance money. There were several couples making their way toward a heart shaped ride marked TUNNEL OF LOVE. Cynder started pacing more quickly, as Ember mumbled to herself. Bowser turned to the three of them. "Here we are! The best event in the mushroom kingdom all year! And you get to be a part of it." Peach turned to the others.

"I got to help book the main act for tonight's carnival. I don't know HOW he was free... but we booked Severus, the world-famous magician for an hour and a half act at the end of the carnival!" Peach beamed and held up a flier. Ember and Flame shrugged, but Cynder just stared at the piece of paper. Suddenly, without even knowing, she shrieked and fainted. Our shot goes black as flashback appears.

_**DRAGON REALMS, 150 YEARS AGO**___

_Cynder was huddled in a cave, clutching to a necklace with several diamonds strung on it. A bright flash enveloped her, followed by a blast of thunder. A voice could be heard laughing... and it was getting closer. "Ah ha ha ha ha ha! I have you now... CYNDER!" A court-jester like creature appeared in front of her. She shrieked as he smiled and bowed. ___

_"W-w-who are you?" She asked, tears streaming down her face. ___

_"I am the master of all things magical, and the creator of this LOVELY storm, SEVERUS! But alas, our time together is short, as I shall render you speechless. But not to worry, I'm sure we'll meet again, in time." He waved his right hand and an icy blast enveloped her; the shrieking slowly muted, and everything goes black._

Cynder bolts upright, coughing and spurting. Ember was using her water breath to fill up a pail. Cynder jumped to her feet. "NO! NO MORE WATER! I'm fine!" Shadow stared at her.

"You're not 'fine' at all. Far from it... why would you faint at a picture of a simple magician?" Cynder shoots a worried look at Flame and Ember before lying.

"I've... just heard SO much about him! I fainted... at his beauty! Yeah! He's SOOOO handsome!" Bowser blinked before turning and walking again, everyone else just shrugged, and followed him. "Oh no... him! Here! Why?" She quickly followed after everyone else. She catches up to them to find them standing next to a booth, Peach in front of everyone. She is facing a small girl in a nice pink dress.

"Hi, Mimi! I didn't know you worked at the carnival!" Mimi nodded and pointed to the sign above the booth. It was labeled GUESS WHO. "So, what's this game?" Mimi walked back to a curtain and pulled it. Three Toads appeared before them, each one looking EXACTLY alike. Ember stared intently, trying to make out some notable difference, but lowered her head in defeat.

"As you see," Mimi began, "There are a triplet of Toads here! But only one is real... the rest are nasty little Duplighosts! If you guess the real one, you win a cool prize!" Peach stares at the three Toads, paying careful attention to each one. Finally, she answers.

"It's the middle one?" Peach guessed, shrugging. Mimi motioned to the Toads. Instantly, the two ones on the sides transformed into clouds of smoke. They reappeared as creatures looking like Doopliss, but with gray sheets.

"Wow! You're the first person to win tonight! Here's your prize!" Mimi hands Peach an envelope. She opens it revealing a gift card.

"Cool, a gift card! This carnival's got some NEAT stuff this year." Mimi smiled and began to talk.

"The carnival got a huge donation this year from someone holding a high position in the M.R.U.N!" She motion to two humans talking. One was short and plump, dressed in a red suit with a black shirt and a gray tie. Cynder gasped at the second figure and nudged Flame and Ember and stared in shock.

"PEACH! That's..." Ember motions to the taller man. Peach smiles and finishes her sentence.

"...head of the department of international security at the M.R.U.N., Jonathan Scrimegour. He donated the money!" Cynder's face creased in anger.

"We have to leave... NOW!" She demanded. Bowser turned at her, astonished.

"But we've hardly done anything. Why leave? We HAVE to see that magic show!" Cynder flies up to Bowser head and grabs him by the collar. With a shocking amount of strength, she lifts him into the air.

"Listen you overgrown turtle; if we don't leave here we'll be joining your friend Mario! Gate is involved with the carnival! Scrimegour was one of the guys who KIDNAPPED..." She released her grip; Bowser falls to the ground with a thud.

"Oh no..." Flame rolls his eyes. "That IS Scrimegour! He was in our dimension! He showed up to plant a Dark Gem there!" Cynder collapsed to the ground, punching her fists against the dirt.

"WHY!!! If I could have just sob been a LITTLE faster, I could have... sob WHY? WHY? WHY?!" Ember turned her head away, clearly entranced in her own thoughts.

_Who does this girl think she's trying to fool with that act...? Spyro himself?_ She fixed her eyes on Scrimegour's, who suddenly turned his head so their eyes met. He gasped and suddenly ran off in the direction of the amphitheater. 

"Oh! The show's going to start! Come on!" Peach grabs Cynder and drags her, Cynder viciously clawing at the ground. 

"NO! Don't take me there! He'll see me! He'll see me! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!" Bowser shoved Peach aside and effortlessly picked Cynder up. They walked into the amphitheater and found seats. Suddenly, the stage went dark. A voice rang out through the audience.

"Ah ha ha ha. Ladies and gentlemen... prepared to be dazzled by the master of magic... the pleaser of crowds..." The audience all chimed in, as if knowing the intro by heart.

"...SEVERUS!" They screamed in unison. The curtains opened, revealing Nightmare Severus standing there. He waved his hand and a black shadow ball shot into the air, exploding like fireworks. He followed with several more which he used to spell out "WELCOME" in the moonlit sky. He bowed to them all.

"I bid you a fond hello! Welcome to my show of mysterious illusions and fascinating tricks! I shall have the privilege and honor of entertaining you all tonight! But first, I must thank Jonathan Scrimegour of the M.R.U.N. for his donation and Princess Peach Toadstool for informing me of this miraculous event! And what a fun time I've had tonight!" The audience cheered and screamed. Severus began talking about his first trick as we cut to Cynder, who is looking around the audience. Cynder turns to Doopliss, who is seated next to someone he seems to know. She eavesdrops.

"WOAH! You're... PHOENIX WRIGHT! I have all four of your games... tough luck on the surgery thing. Didn't you have a case tomorrow?" Bowser turns his attention toward them. Wright looks up at Bowser, they both sweat nervously.

"Yeah... Edgeworth agreed to cover for me again while I'm gone." Bowser now spoke.

"Who's he defending?" Wright became really nervous now.

"Er... ah... Plenn T." Bowser rubbed his chin.

"The owner of Items Inc.? How could a corporate billionaire be convicted of murder?" Cynder sighed in boredom and looked around again. She looked at Scrimegour, who was talking with the plump man again. The audience suddenly applauded as a group of doves flew out through the audience. They suddenly stop right over the row they are sitting in. Cynder stares into their eyes, and then suddenly yells out in horror. 

"LOOK OUT!" She charges forward, knocking everyone out of their seats with her massive strength. The doves explode, hitting Cynder in the back where her cut was. She yelled out as she collapsed in a seat. The audience gasps in horror and all begin screaming in panic and confusion. Severus grits his teeth angrily. He teleports away, and the next instance, a large black energy ball careens into Cynder. The pain she felt was unlike anything she had ever felt in her life. It was like her very body was being split in half. Her shriek causes several glass objects to break, including Scrimegour's (who is now firing blasts from his scepter at Luigi) glasses. An echoing voice rings out through the theater.

"Enough." Ember and Flame gasp, Cynder also stares in horror, tearing slightly from the pain of the last attack. High Max descends into the theater.

"H-H-High Max!" Flame says, gritting his teeth in anger. High Max merely meets his glare with one of his emotionless stares. Flame is startled by his unshaken face and turns to his friends. "He's the jerk who knocked Spyro's lights out!" 

"And now I'll knock out yours." High Max proclaims.

High Max floats over Scrimegour, who seems to sense what's happening and leaves. High Max puts his hands together and pushes them apart. Two barriers covered with ancient symbols on them appear. Cynder, in her rage, jumps up and tries to attack, but the barrier bats her away. High Max suddenly rushes strait at the large group. Most of them manage to get out of the way, but Ember is hit and slammed into a wall. High Max continues dashing forward and slams into her again. A cry of pain is heard and the barriers disappear. High Max floats into the air, back to where he was. He cups his hands together again. Four small energy balls fly out in a strait line. Flame steps in front of them and uses a powerful fire breath to destroy the energy balls.

High Max puts up the barriers again and starts charging. Flame doesn't have time to react and is slammed into Ember. They both collapse in unconscious heaps on the ground. "HEY... tall black and ugly... EAT THIS!" High Max turns around to see Cynder unleashing three black fireballs. They hit their mark, exploding on the spot. But when the smoke clears, High Max looks completely unharmed. "T-t-that's impossible!" High Max floats over to her and cups his hands together again.

"With this move..." He thrusts them apart, and the small energy ball suddenly grows so it's covering him. Suddenly, energy in the shape of spikes pop out throughout the ball, turning him into a mace. Cynder tries to one but High Max crushes her under the mace. An echoing cry of agony rears out through the theater. The energy mace disappears. Cynder just lays there, several large puncture wounds have appeared on her. "Surrender yourselves. Resistance is useless." Suddenly, a taunting voice echoes out through the theater.

"Tsk tsk, High Max, you haven't changed a bit!" High Max looks around the theater. "Up here!" A black beam falls out of the sky. It hits the ground and suddenly forms a robot. It looks the same as Vic, except its armor is black and white, and the hair is blond. "Hey buddy, did you miss me? Who would've thought Gate would be back to his tricks after all this time!"

"It's you. Zero." High Max remarked. "This time, I will defeat you." High Max rises into the air and appears next to the unconscious Flame and Ember. He puts his barrier up, but Zero just stands there. High Max rushes at him, but Zero dashes under the attack. He turns and dashes toward High Max who puts the barriers away. Suddenly, Zero produces a purple beam saber and slashes High Max, who begins flashing white. Zero slashes again and High Max suddenly crashes to the ground. "Shock," was all that was heard. High Max rises into the air again and appears on the other side. He cups his hands together and shoots out four energy balls. Zero dashes under them again, and slashes High Max twice. Again, High Max comes crashing to the ground.

"No. I'm supposed to be stronger." High Max flashes white again, before several miniature explosions encase him. A bright flash of white light follows, and High Max is gone when the light vanishes. The still-conscious heroes cheer and clap for Zero, who approaches them. He looks up at the sky, where a creature is flying down into the arena. He lands next to Zero.

"Thanks for saving our skins, slick!" Doopliss yelled. Zero nodded.

"No problem... it's what I do." They all turn to the other person. 

"I hope that wasn't too much of a problem for you." Dr. Lelenthal said. Zero shook his head.

"Not at all... High Max still hasn't learned anything new! Except that mace thing… that was creepy." Dr. Lelenthal nods and turns to Peach.

"Jason wants me to take the ones who are going out to stop Gate to his lab. You can come along if you'd like." Dr. Lelenthal looks at the three dragons. "Hmph... they still have a lot to learn."

**CORE LAB, GATE'S LABORATORY 2233 HOURS**

"High Max, you failed me." High Max knelt in front of Gate.

"It's not my error. That annoying Maverick Hunter, Zero was somehow revived... again... and sent to help them." Gate grunts and turns to Severus.

"And YOU... were useless! As were you Scrimegour. I told you to weaken them!" Severus snaps his fingers.

"Ah ha ha ha. How was I supposed to know the dragons would find there way here? They must've had help!" Scrimegour nodded.

"One of them instantly recognized me! And that black dragon, the one that tried to tackle me after we had Spyro, she knocked all her friends out of the seat when I blew up the doves!" Gate slams his fist on the table, Scrimegour jumps back, slightly shaken.

"Failure IS NOT AN OPTION! I don't tolerate mistakes in my organization." Suddenly, the electronic door beeps, and slides open, a figure slowly walking into the room. "Ah yes, Spyro. Why do you disturb me? I'm busy punishing my minions!" Spyro glared back at Gate, his now blood red eyes piercing through Gate's own glare. Gate turns away from Spyro as he speaks, his voice cool and dark, like Scrimegour's.

"I finished tracking down those heroes you wanted me to get. All except that Bass creature. He refused to agree to my demands... so I blew him up, of course!" Spyro smirked at his own success. "They are being held with that dorky turtle's weird minions in the prison cell." Severus laughed.

"Ah ha ha ha. Truly I have outdone myself, no?" Suddenly, a black and purple shadow ball blasted him in the back, his face angered. Spyro glared back at him.

"You did nothing, but failed! It was I who apprehended the heroes, as Gate desired." He turned to Gate, who looked as his computer screen.

"Spyro, tell me, how do you feel about guarding the Dark Gem in the Dragon Realms?" Spyro laughed.

"If I get to fight those weaklings, it doesn't matter to me!" He turned and strode off, the doors slamming shut behind him.

"Then let them come to you..." Gate grinned as he turned back to his computer.

END OF CHAPTER 9

Next time, Chapter 10- The Eight Dark Gems


	11. 8 Dark Gems, 1 Traitor

**Given the short lengths of what was to be the next three chapters; I've decided to merge them all into one! That includes changing the title.**

**Chapter 10- 8 Dark Gems, 1 Traitor**

DR. NITROS'S LAB 0405 HOURS

Dr. Lelenthal walks into a dark room and flips on the light switch. "Jason isn't here right now. He has meetings with some associates." They walk into a room with a large screen on it. Bowser looks over his shoulder at the knocked out Flame.

"They've been out a while. Do you think they're gonna wake up?" Peach smacked Bowser.

"Of course they will! Don't say that." Just then, a groaning noise is heard. Bowser looks over his other shoulder where Ember is stirring. Suddenly, she bolts her eyes open and jumps off Bowser.

"GAH!" She shakes her head and stretches, regaining her composure. "Where are we... what happened?" She stared at Zero. "And why's Vic here?" Peach turned to Ember.

"High Max knocked you out with his attack. That's not Vic, that's Zero. He saved us from High Max." Ember stared at him in complete awe.

"Y-you actually BEAT him?" She remarked. Zero nodded. She turned to Cynder, who was draped over Zero's shoulder. Cynder had several large cuts on her back. And the cut from the glass jar began bleeding again. "She looks awful!" Ember turned to Peach. "Isn't there a way to fix her up?" Peach smiled.

"As a matter of fact, yes!" The door opens and in walks a medium-sized girl in white robes. Peach turns back to Ember. "That's White Mage. She's an expert healer!" White Mage walks up to Peach.

"Ugh, sorry I'm late! Black Mage wouldn't let me sneak out of the house to come to you guys. I had to knock him unconscious with my mallet. So... who needs healing?" Ember motions to Zero who lays Cynder down. "Yikes! That girl's a complete mess!" White Mage said. She walked over to Cynder and put a hand on her, then jerked it back quickly. "She's FREEZING cold! Like she jumped in a frozen lake or something!" She put her hand back on Cynder.

Cynder suddenly glowed white. Ember could make out all the cuts and bruises shrinking, till they were no more. White Mage turned back to Peach and Ember, satisfied. "There... all done! Good as new." Cynder winced slightly, before opening her eyes.

"Am I dead yet?" She said groggily, rubbing her eyes with her paw. She stared at Zero. Zero bent down to her level and whispered something in her ear. Cynder nodded and whispered back. Zero stands back up and speaks to her.

"Glad to know we're on the same page." He said. The others stared at them, confused. Suddenly, Dr. Lelenthal clears his throat and everyone turns their attention to him.

"Now," He began as he pressed a button on the keyboard. Two maps appeared showing each of the two dimensions. He continued speaking, "Gate has taken over Bowser's castle which is currently located at the center of Dark Land. However, Gate planted 8 Dark Gems throughout this world and the world where Ember and Cynder have come from. They seem to have put a barrier around the castle. So far... we've only managed to track down four." He presses the button again.

"A fortress has appeared in the center of the Dragon Realms. The first gem is powering the wormholes that Gate is using to send things between dimensions. The second gem is in the Koopahari Desert. Gate is using this gem to create solar panels which are creating plant-like nightmares. The third gem is in Mt. Lavalava. Gate is planning on harnessing the molten lava to make weapons for his troops. The fourth Dark Gem is hidden in Antarctica in your home (he turns to Ember and Cynder)." Ember nods and thinks to herself.

"So you're saying we have to destroy the gems IN THAT ORDER?" Dr. Lelenthal shook his head.

"No, but I AM recommending that you go to your dimension. It's becoming harder to keep wormholes active with Gate's meddling. By the way, we made you this..." Dr. Lelenthal hands Bowser an iPhone.

"It's just an iPhone... so what?" Dr. Lelenthal laughed.

"Not JUST an iPhone! I modified it with some special weapons! You can call it the Battle Operations Buddy!" Cynder laughed at this.

"How about Bob instead?" Ember commented. Dr. Lelenthal mumbled to himself before activating a wormhole device in the corner of the room. Bowser looked at, and pushed a button. A mini-flamethrower instantly forms on the top of the phone and spits a large jet of flames into Bowser's face. The others begin laughing.

"GRAH! It's not funny!" Bowser yelled, wiping the soot of his face. Dr. Lelenthal clears his throat again.

"Good luck. Use Bob to report back to me if there's a problem!" Ember nodded and turned to Bowser.

"We HAVE to wake Flame up! Anyone have a bucket?" At the mention of bucket, Flame bolts upright.

"I'M AWAKE! No water! Please don't!" The others laugh at this. 

"Somebody doesn't like water." Ember taunted, grinning. Flame grumbles and walks through the portal. White Mage, Zero, Doopliss, Shadow, Luigi, Pikachu, Bowser, Ember and Cynder follow. Ember turns back to Peach.

"Aren't you coming?" Peach shakes her head.

"No... after what happened last night, I'm going to the M.R.U.N. Headquarters to spy on Scrimegour. Good luck!"

"You too!" Ember said and she stepped through the portal. _After all this, we're finally starting! Don't worry Spyro... I'll save you!_

CORE LAB, GATE'S LABORATORY 0500 HOURS

Gate stares at Severus. "Severus, I have an important assignment for you." Severus bows and answers.

"Name your task, my liege." Gate nods and faces him.

"I am having trouble controlling construction of the Final Weapon without being able to see it. I have heard of a remarkable space telescope in Woohoo Honiversity, which can see far enough into space to watch progress. I would like you to go there, and confirm this suspicion. Report back what you find out." Severus nods and teleports out. Gate's computer screen suddenly flashes. He turns to it and an evil grin forms on his face.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. It looks like they picked the wrong place to start. Oh well, better to have them out of the way before they cause any trouble!"

ARTISANS HOME WORLD, DRAGON REALMS 0800 HOURS

A swirling blue portal appears in an open field and our heroes step out. Flame looks around and takes a deep breath. "Ah! There's no place like home." Shadow looked around.

"Didn't they say this place was under attack? It doesn't look like it's under attack!" Cynder looked toward a group of nearby houses.

"It looks like most people haven't woken up yet. That's good! We can find that fortress more easily now!" Cynder starts walking with Flame and Ember following. The other heroes exchange confused looks but follow them anyway.

30 MINUTES OF WALKING LATER...

"Are we there yet?" Bowser grumbled dragging his feet across the ground. Ember sighed and turned around to face him, trying not to show signs of lost patience.

"Not yet. But we're getting close." Bowser groaned and continued walking. Doopliss was playing his DS as he was walking; Cynder was looking over his shoulder.

"No! Go left... it's a left turn!" She cried. Doopliss pushed left on the control pad and the car turned left, just avoiding falling off a cliff.

"Hey... you're pretty good at this!" He exclaimed. Ember turned to White Mage.

"How is he able to walk _and_ play video games at the SAME TIME?" White Mage chuckled a little.

"That's what we would like to know to!" Ember sarcastically rolls her eyes. Suddenly Luigi runs back toward them.

"Guys... I see something! It's big, shiny, and metal-y! It MUST be the fortress!" Ember and Flame nod to each other and they walk up toward the top of the hill. Cynder gasps and pushes down on Luigi's head.

"Get down... they'll see you!"

"Who?"

"The guards!" Cynder pointed to the entrance to the fortress which was guarded by silhouette-like holograms. Zero cursed and then muttered a single word.

"Nightmares." Cynder nodded at him. Flame leaned toward her and whispered.

"I've got an idea." He said. "Since Zero knows what these things are... how about he distracts them while we run into the fortress. Then he can follow us!" Cynder scratches her head.

"Naw, to risky! I've got a great idea..." she turned to the others and spoke, "...since Zero knows about these nightmares, he should distract them and we'll run into the fortress. Then he can follow us once we're in!" The others mutter phrases of agreement.

"Wow," said Flame, a small sweat drop rolling down his head, "that's a great idea. Why didn't I think of that?" Cynder put her paw to her mouth, trying to hold back the laughter.

The bushes near the fortress rustle. The nightmares look up and Zero leaps out of it, brandishing his saber. He starts a combo of frantic slashes on the nearest nightmare. It disappears instantly. The other nightmares all leave their posts and advance toward Zero. He begins spinning like a top, his saber outstretched, and crashes into them. Meanwhile, we see our heroes sneaking into the open doors of the fortress. Zero spies Flame's tail entering then finishes off the last nightmare by slicing it through where its neck would be. He dashes towards the door and stops. He turns and stares at the roof, where a security camera swivels to face him. Zero's extends his right hand, which morphs into a blaster, and fires a single shot, destroying it. He smiles and walks inside.

DARK GEM FORTRESS 0845 HOURS

The group quietly move through the halls, so as not to make any loud noises. Suddenly, Flame's hind leg meets his tail and he trips, knocking into Luigi who falls over, with a thud. "You idiot!" Cynder yelled in a whisper (author's note: I wasn't sure how to make those four words out). Flame blushed slightly and stood up. The group walks into a hall with 8 doors, four on each side. Bowser rolls his eyes.

"What's next... some creature just runs in here and we have one of those freaky door chase scenes...?" The floor shakes slightly. "Oh me and my tongue!" Suddenly, a large mechanical dog jumps out of the first door. It barks, the noise shattering the nearby windows.

"Gah! Now what do we do?" Ember asked, but Doopliss thought first. In a puff of smoke, he transformed into the robot dog. He barks back at it, only his bark is ten times louder. The dog suddenly shrinks to the size of a puppy and whimpers as it runs back through the door. Doopliss transforms back into himself.

"Boy, I've heard of having nothing within... but that's ridiculous!" Suddenly, the sound of drums, followed by a symbol crash echoes through the hall. Doopliss smiles awkwardly and bows. "Er... thank you! Thank you! You're too kind." And with that, the group starts walking forward again, till they reach a door with Gate's logo in the center.

"A giant door at the end of an ominous hallway... I think we're here!" Luigi proclaimed happily. Ember stepped up to the door, but nothing happened.

"That's weird. Shouldn't it have opened?" She turned to face the others and the door opens. Shadow folds his arms.

"How clichéd." He scoffs. They walk through the door, into a large arena like room. At the end of it is another set of doors. Flame beamed happily at the empty room.

"It looks like there's no one here! Lucky us! This'll be easy." Flame started to walk forward. Shadow looked at him angrily.

"Too easy... KID! GET OUTTA THERE!" Flame stared back at him, confused. Suddenly, a black and purple energy ball struck him in the back and he falls to the floor. "Hmph. I tried to tell him." Shadow shrugged and looked around the room for the attacker. They didn't have to wait long for a purple dragon to step out from the other set of doors. Ember and Cynder gasped as Spyro didn't glide, but rather floated right down into the arena. His eyes were blood red, and the tips of his scales were tinted black, giving him a dark outline. The tattoo on his paw was as black as the shadows themselves. He smiled a wide, toothy grin. The heroes were shaken by the shimmering fangs and all took nervous steps back. Cynder gulped.

"S-S-Spy...ro?" She said, the color draining from her face. Spyro laughed.

"I'm deeply impressed! To think that you three ACTUALLY made it to the mortal realms and ACTUALLY made it here." He turned his attention to Zero. "Of course, if not for your little friend here, High Max would have ripped you three to shreds." Spyro laughed and looked at Flame, unconscious on the ground. He snorted, "Pathetic, one shadow ball and his lights go out faster than Zane can flee a fight against me!" He raised his hand, the tattoo glowing, and shoots out a stream of water at Flame. He screams and in confusion, runs away… right into the wall. Spyro collapsed onto the floor, choking with laughter. Flame realized what had happened and charged toward Spyro.

"How could you do that... you... you... TRAITOR!" He lunged at Spyro, but Spyro merely smiled and suddenly vanished. He quickly reappeared behind Flame, grabbed him in a choke hold and elbowed him in the ribs. His free hand suddenly glowed red and he slammed it into Flame's chest, unleashing a fireball that sends Flame flying into a wall. Spyro blows on his hand, in a taunting sort of matter. Ember stared in shock.

"How could you do that? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" She cried out, tears beginning to form in her eyes. He chuckled and turned his attention toward the bulk of the group.

" I've seen the glorious light of evil! The power! The magic! I could do things you couldn't even DREAM of doing! Severus has taught me things no of YOU weaklings would dare attempt!. I'm capable of far more than EVER BEFORE!" As he was ranting, Flame crept up behind him and suddenly lunged forward. Without even turning his head, Spyro thrusts his left hand back, unleashing a bolt of lightning, shooting Flame back into the same wall. He turns to Flame, his evil grin getting wider. "You know, it's not nice to attack people while their backs are turned." Luigi turned to Ember.

"He... he knocked out Flame without even breaking a sweat! How did he do this?" Ember just stood there, horrified at the sight of her friend.

_This is not Spyro. Spyro would never laugh while others suffered! He always knew the right thing to do! How are we going to beat him?_ She stood there, frozen. Thoughts of fear, anger, revenge and shock floating through her mind. Without thinking, she unleashes a powerful jet of flames. Spyro sidestepped them, only to be caught of guard by a black fireball from Cynder. It hit him square in the chest, causing an explosion. But when the dust cleared, Spyro was still floating there, smirking; a small burn mark on his chest.

"That tickled!" He taunted. "But it's _my turn now_!"

END CHAPTER 10

**Spyro's become more powerful than any enemy Flame and Ember had ever faced! What to do? What to do?**

Next time, Chapter 11- Epsilon: Friend or Foe?


	12. Epsilon: Friend or Foe?

**And now, the 11****th**** chapter; it's time to meet the newest character!**

**Chapter 11- Epsilon: Friend or Foe?  
**  
Spyro thrusts his arms forward, and jets of white and blue flames emerge from them. Everyone manages to dodge them smoothly. "BLUE FLAMES!" Ember shouted, startled, "but... only 3 dragons have ever been able to do that in history!" Spyro laughed as he aimed his flames at the two scattered groups. He managed to hit Ember with the flames, she cried out in agony as he continued to assault her with the fire.

But he is suddenly struck in the side by a slash from Zero and stops his attack. Ember lies there on the ground; a large spot on her side is now smoking. Small embers are flying off the black scales. Spyro laughs. "Now that's living up to your name! Ha ha ha ha!" With that, he shot a blast of lightning at Zero, but he expertly dodged it. Zero suddenly dashes behind Spyro. Spyro prepares to attack again, but Zero strikes first. He creates a nightmare-like, black clone of himself in front of Spyro. Zero begins a combo with his saber, the clone mimics, hitting Spyro and knocking him in the air. Zero runs up under him and jumps straight up while releasing a huge electric beam. Spyro howls as the electricity surges through him, plummeting to the ground. But Zero's not done. His saber now transforms into a giant triangle of fire which he slams down into Spyro, who collides with the ground with a thud. Bowser jumps into the air, and Bowser Bombs Spyro, while Doopliss head butts Spyro, knocking him towards Flame, who unleashes a devastating blast of red hot flames from his mouth. Spyro collapses on the ground in a heap.

The heroes all stand there, seemingly satisfied with their work. Their smiles quickly fade, as Spyro stands up. He licks the blood trickling out from his mouth, smiling. The smile quickly turns to rage as Spyro slams the ground with his fists. Three giant shockwaves ripple out across the arena, knocking everyone off their feet and slamming them into the wall. All that is, except Cynder, who dodges the attack and dive bombs Spyro from the air. Spyro staggers back to his feet as Cynder circles around for another strike. "DIE! JUST DIE! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" She screamed.

Spyro merely ignored her and sidestepped the dive, grabbing her leg and slamming her into the ground before unleashing a deadly wave of blue flames from his mouth. She screams as the pain seers through her every limb, controlling her every thought. "You can't defeat me, LITTLE GIRL!" Spyro laughed, "I'm INVINCIBLE!" With that, he opens his mouth and bites into her leg. She screams in pain. Spyro just laughs. Cynder staggers back toward her friends wiping the blood from her leg.

"Well... now what do we do?" White Mage asked, as Ember's burn died down slightly. "He's too strong for us!" Cynder couldn't hold it back any more. She burst out crying, while Spyro continued to laugh.

"Tsk tsk... a battlefield is no place for such a CHILD!" Spyro remarked. What happened next was so quick, blinking meant missing it. One second, Spyro was standing and laughing, and the next, he was grabbing his back, screeching in agony. He looked around. "What the..." Suddenly, a second purple dragon materialized in front of everyone's shocked eyes. This dragon looked exactly like Spyro, even his eyes glowed blood red like his, but he was much larger. And more muscular. He was wearing some sort of black battle armor, which also covered his body, arms and legs. A sheath was strapped to his right side, clearly holding a sword.

"Hmph... if a battlefield is no place for a child, then what are you doing here?" He growled. Spyro's eyes narrowed in anger.

"How dare you insult me! Who do you think you are? There's no room for TWO purple dragons on this planet!" He laughed. The other dragon snapped his fingers, and a purple and black beam of energy launched itself at Spyro, shooting him into the wall.

"You're a foolish, naive, and arrogant little dragon to talk to me like that. You don't deserve that power that was wrongfully bestowed upon you. I am here... to help you. But I see Severus's spell has thoroughly barricaded your mind. So I'm afraid, I must DESTROY YOU!"

Spyro didn't have time to react, or even speak. The dragon disappeared, only to reappears instantly behind him. A ball of energy formed in one of his hands, and he slammed it into Spyro, who careened into the wall at speeds naked to the human eye. The dragon again disappeared and was suddenly behind Flame. He grabbed the startled dragon and threw him into Ember and Spyro. He opened his mouth and what came out startled everyone; Earth Breath. But it was shaped to form a mace which he slammed Spyro, Ember and Flame with. Cynder stared in awe. Bowser suddenly yelled out.

"What are you doing?! They're on OUR side, you lunatic!" The dragon just growled at him. Cynder suddenly spoke up.

"He used Earth vine (author's note: TEN spoilers, I know)... but how did he know that move?!" She quickly jumped out of the way, as shadow balls rained out of the sky. Spyro was desperately trying to hit the dragon. The dragon suddenly reappears behind him, and unsheathes his sword. With a powerful motion, he slams the sword into Spyro's back, creating a huge gash strait across it and slams the unconscious dragon against his former friends, before dragging Flame and Ember out of the pile and tossing them back towards a startled Cynder. The dragon came up to her.

"Cynder, long time no see." He said, smirking. He turned to Flame and Ember. "Well, well, look what the cat dragged in; Flame and Ember. My you two have grown." The two dragons groaned as they stood up. Flame suddenly attempts to tackle the dragon, but misses and hits Cynder instead. Ember gasped and elbowed Flame.

"Flame… do you realize who that is?! Don't you remember, seven years ago?!" Flame gasps.

"THE FIGHT?! Oh god. Oh god… please don't tell me…" Flame began. The dragon growled.

"That I'm the dragon's egg you broke during your little 3 on 3 match with that Zane kid… so sorry, but I'm afraid that's true." The dragon growled.

"But how are you alive? How do you look so much older?" The dragon sighed.

"When you idiots destroyed me egg, Vic was informed, and teleported me to his lab in the Forgotten Realms. There, he tried to use his magic to morph my body into that of an 18 year old, the age when a dragon's body and muscles are fully developed. But… there was still a problem. My bones weren't developed… at all. I wouldn't be able to function. So he operated on me. He equipped me with and endo and exoskeleton. It sharpened my reflexes, senses, strength, and agility." Bowser stroked his chin.

"So… you're, like, a bionic dragon then?" The dragon nods, then continues speaking.

"I was then sent to the 10th dimension. I was trained to cast dark magic, and to handle a sword." Cynder stared at the sword.

"That sword..." Cynder began, "Phoenix Diamond... the sharpest substance in the universe, right Epsilon?" Epsilon put the sword away.

"Correct. Powerful enough to scratch lead, and regular diamonds. Melded by the flames of a Phoenix. Quite rare. So few of them exist." He sighed and Ember spoke up.

"How do you know Epsilon, Cynder?" Cynder quickly thought up a lie.

"I had visions of him, during my long sleep in the ice." Flame stared at him.

"I don't believe a word of this!" He yelled. There was suddenly a loud booming noise. Spyro was gone, and Vic was now there.

"Oh… it's true. Every word of it." Vic sighed. "It's time I told you three about HOW Spyro got his second life." Vic snapped his fingers. A large chair appeared and he sat in it. "In order to bring Spyro back to this world, I would need to take life force away from some other creature. I could use the life force to create a different version of that creature that would be Spyro. As luck may have had it, there was a purple dragon due to hatch in about six months. I did the magical transfer, and the operation went smoothly." Ember gasped.

"So Epsilon is… SPYRO'S BROTHER?!" Vic laughed.

"Oh he's closer than brother, but not close enough for Spyro to be considered a clone. So, Spyro would be the one to hatch, while Epsilon was have to re-develop. But, that was not to happen, thanks to you two. Luckily, I had read of said event happening in the Prognosticus, and put a tracer on Epsilon's egg. When the signal died, I knew it had happened." Vic turned his chair away from them. "And I transformed Epsilon into a super weapon of my own creation." Cynder stared at the back of the chair.

"What do you mean super weapon?" Vic laughed again.

"With that right combo of ancient words, Epsilon can unleash a blast of energy capable of doing more damage than a nuclear bomb. But, he has the ability to control the range of the attack, so as not to hurt innocent people." Vic turned back to them, his face now very serious. "Now, in your little talk, Gate fished Spyro out of this dimension. In other words, you let him get away. I've come to tell you that there is a way to save Spyro other than killing Severus or having him undo the spell. But the way is impossible." The all gasped, except Epsilon and Shadow; they just folded their arms. Vic turned to Cynder and started whispering. Vic nodded.

"Good, then I shall be off. You guys should head to N. Sanity Island next. It's near the beach. I have arranged for a boat to take you to Antarctica tomorrow. Well, good day." He bowed and teleported away. Everyone stared at Epsilon, who had brought the dark gem out of the next room. He crushed it with his sword. Everyone starting asking questions, except Cynder who was lost in thought. Vic whispering voice echoed through her head.

"_It's coming… do not try to run… it's coming…"_

END CHAPTER 12!

**What's coming? Is something going to happen? And where's the second dark gem? Only one way to find out; keep reading!**

Next time, Chapter 13- Guy; Man of Mystery


	13. Guy: Man of Mystery

**Alright, a new chapter, and another new character!**

**Chapter 12- Guy; Man of Mystery**  
N. SANITY ISLAND 2045 HOURS  
  
The group had settled down to camp near the house of Crash Bandicoot, a friend of Spyro, Ember and Flame. Bowser, Flame, Zero and Doopliss were all hunched over Doopliss's DS, entranced in a game, while Luigi, Shadow, Cynder, Ember and White Mage were sitting in a small circle, talking. Epsilon was lying with Pikachu against a tree, staring at the dusk sky.

"So, you're a Gamesharked Pikachu?" He asked. Pikachu nodded. Epsilon took a deep breath in.

"Yeah... all the Pokémon in the 10th dimension can talk. It's not because of Gamesharks, but because of the high radioactive contents in the air. The same contents warped the very fabric of my mind, so I think more logically than most creatures." Pikachu stared at him.

"You're so cool! I mean, did you see the way you kicked Spyro's butt... you barely looked like you were trying out there!" Pikachu smiled, Epsilon shrugged.

"I guess so; it's pretty natural for me to fight like that by now." Pikachu turned to a small cookie he had in front of him, left over from dinner. He happily bit into the cookie, still remembering how they had cookies. It turns out, Bowser had brought along an Easy Bake oven; which took several long minutes of laughing to get over. They learned the oven was charmed by Scrimegour so it could cook any type of food, no matter how big. He finished the cookie and yawned.

"I'm pretty tired, I'm gonna turn in for the night!" He got up and walked away from Epsilon. He curled up into a ball near the fire and quickly fell asleep. Soon after, Cynder and Ember turned in for the night. Then the rest of the group, except Epsilon, who threw some more wood on the fire. He sighed.

"I wonder what it's like to sleep." He said, catching tiny embers in his paw.  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
N. SANITY ISLAND 0630 HOURS

Epsilon was standing near the beach, filling up a pail with wate. He thought he'd play a little practical joke on Flame and Ember that morning. Suddenly, he stopped filling the pail. _Wait... you can do better than this... you have psychic abilities, remember?_ He decided to boil the water to make hot chocolate instead.

He walked back to the beach, to find Cynder awake. "What are you...?" He put his finger to his lips, then knelt down next to her and whispered in her ear. She smiled and nodded, then turned and woke the others up. Before any of them could say something, Epsilon and Cynder explained what was going to happen. They all walked toward the beach. Epsilon turned to Flame and Ember. His red eyes suddenly flashed sky blue. A small aura of the same color surrounded them and lifted them into the air. He moved them in the direction of the water until they were a fair distance into it.

His eyes flashed briefly, and the aura disappeared. The two dragons instantly plummeted to the water, making two large splashes. The others laughed, well except Shadow who just rubbed his eyelids and Epsilon who smirked briefly. After a few seconds, screaming could be heard from the water; Ember woke up. A loud 'thud' was heard after them and Flame flew onto the shore, Ember chasing after him. "But... I didn't do anything! I was asleep the whole time!" He begged. Epsilon stuck out his foot and Flame tripped over it, face planting into the sand. Ember landed her wings and tail hanging down from the extra, liquid weight. She stared all of them in the eye.

"All right... who was it? Who did it?" Epsilon raised his hand, rolling his eyes. Ember growled and charged at him, but Epsilon sidestepped the attack and Ember fell in the water, again. Epsilon shook his head.

"Well... it looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." He commented. Meanwhile, Flame dried himself off with one of the group's towels.

"Not funny!" He spat at them. Cynder shook her head.

"Yes it was!" She said, smiling. Shadow spoke up.

"Alright, enough monkeying around. We gotta get across to Cortex's Iceberg Lab. That seems to be where the gem is." He said as he looked at Bob's radar. Everyone nodded in unison, except Ember who was blowing small flames onto her scales to dry off.

ICEBERG LAB 0830 HOURS

The boat hits the tip of a large, snowy mountain and everyone climbs off. Several of them are shivering; Cynder seems to be the only one fine with the temperature. "W-w-well of _course_ she's okay!" Flame yelled, "She was trapped in an ice wall for a century and a half!" Cynder rolled her eyes and walked toward the entrance to the lab. However, she got there and noticed a sign on it that read...

ON VACATION IN COSTA RICA. BACK IN TWO WEEKS. N. CORTEX

"What's a Costa Rica anyway?" Pikachu said, walking up to the door. He attempts to pull on the handles. "ARGH! It's no good! The door's frozen shut." Cynder pushed Pikachu back and blew a stream of black flames on the door. She walked up to it and attempted to open it. Again nothing happened. Epsilon rolled his eyes.

"You idiots." Epsilon said, he walked up to the door and touched it. "That door is coated with Magnesium." He began, "I gotta give Cortex credit. Magnesium is usually easy to ignite... but if it is in a large abundance, like this door, it can be near-impossible. Let me handle it." He pushed Cynder back, causing her to fall over. He lurched his arm forward and a tremendous stream of white flames shot out of it. After a few seconds, the door ignited, the fire rapidly burnt the door down, at which point Epsilon pulled his arm back and the flames seemed to retract back into it. Everyone stared in shock at this feat except Shadow who calmly walked in, followed by Epsilon and Doopliss. Bowser stood there scratching his head.

"I don't know which was more amazing; the fire trick, or the things he knew about that Magnawhosas stuff." Cynder fell down, anime-style, at this comment. 

1.5 HOURS LATER...

"Where are we going?" Ember asked Zero impatiently. They'd been walking up the same staircase for 15 minutes. Zero had his head buried in a brochure labeled, 'So You Think You Can Navigate through Cortex's Lab?'

"Well... the map says we're heading for the library. And Bob's radar says the gem is at the highest point of the tower which is in the same direction as the library." Zero said. "It looks like we're almost there!" Bowser and White Mage let out huge sighs of relief. Cynder smacked her forehead, as she climbed up a ladder. She emerged in a huge circular room, lined with bookshelves. In front of her was a desk, with a huge leather chair facing the opposite direction. Cortex's trademark logo was stitched in the carpeting.

"This place is huge!" Flame said. "There must be like, every book in existence here!" White Mage finally came up the ladder, panting, and closed the trapdoor. Suddenly, a voice cleared its throat. Everyone turned toward the large chair. It turned around, revealing a tall man seated in it, reading a coverless book. He was wearing a suit with a white lab coat over it, had sleek, red hair, and instead of eyes, a large visor that had glowing red lines on the front. Doopliss and Bowser seemed to recognize the person.

"Are you..." Bowser began. But the person began speaking, his voice dark and mysterious.

"No. I'm not from either of your dimensions, believe it or not. I just look like him, because of an accident. I was near-blinded in a game of baseball. It just so happens, the doctors in THESE dimensions performed an operation on someone with the same problem as me." Cynder looked at the man, who turned the page in his book.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Why does it matter? I'm not who I once was. You can just call me... Guy." He smirked and turned another page. Her eyes narrowed, she was clearly loosing her patience.

"Well... why are you here?" She mumbled. Guy just turned another page in his book.

"That does not matter either. Rather, it is I who should ask you that question." He responded, casually. Cynder appeared shaken by his response.

"How dare you!" She retaliated. "You're just some man in a mask!" She hissed. Guy frowned.

"Aren't we all wearing masks? Like you, you're hiding your affections for someone, so that a certain other dragon doesn't hate you." Cynder stepped back, startled. Ember began to glare at Cynder. Guy chuckled, and Ember turned her attention back to him. He put his book down. "My... aren't we all a little impatient. Tell you what, how about two of you face me in a fight. Win and I'll let you pass. Lose, and you'll have to find another way to your precious dark gem." He smiled and stepped away from the desk and pushed a button. Instantly, several beakers and test tubes emerged on the desk. A blue forcefield appeared around Guy. Flame leaned toward Ember.

"Psst, Ember! Don't you recognize what he's doing? Remember when Crash told us about when his first adventure. This looks similar to his description of that N. Brio person. I think he's going to mimic his battle style!" Ember nodded, then turned to Doopliss and held up a picture of Crash. Doopliss nodded, and transformed into Crash. He and Flame took a couple of steps in front of everyone else. Guy smiled.

"I see you've chosen... good! We can begin." He bowed to them and hurried back to his desk. He picked up two green test tubes and began mixing. "I hope you all remember science class... that way, you can get these chemicals off!" He smiled and threw one of the beakers. It exploded near Flame, knocking him off his feet. A green blob appeared where the beaker broke and began chasing after Doopliss, who ran away from it.

"HELP! I'm being chased by a blob! Somebody stop this thing... oh wait... I remember now!" He waited for the blob to get in close, then spun around, knocking the blob back at Guy. It penetrated the forcefield and gave him a violent shock. He swore loudly. He picked up a purple beaker and threw it. Flame, caught off guard, was hit by the potion, which exploded, making a large black burn mark and knocking him into a wall. Guy threw out another green potion, and a blob began hopping toward Flame. He swung his tail like a golf club, hitting the blob into Guy.

"Gah! You're smarter than I anticipated!" Guy threw out two blue potions. They exploded, and rings of blue fire began chasing after Flame and Doopliss. Flame simply flew over them, then used Ice Breath to extinguish them. Guy used this to his advantage, and threw another purple potion at Flame, and a green one at Doopliss. They were both hit, and the blob began chasing after Flame. Flame smacked it back at Guy, who swore again. Guy threw a purple potion at Flame, who stared upward to dodge it. Guy grinned and threw a green potion right into his gut. The blob began jumping on the unconscious Flame. Doopliss snuck up behind it and spun it into Guy. Guy suddenly slammed a blue potion on the ground. A ring of fire rushed out, burning Doopliss. He threw two green potions, and the blobs began chasing Doopliss. Doopliss got behind them and spun one into Guy. The other managed to jump on him, and started to grow around his body. Doopliss quickly pulled out his broken umbrella and waved it around. It started flashing with energy. He opened the umbrella and a beam of energy fired out. The blob flew into Guy, whose forcefield exploded, knocking him over.

He straightened himself up and smiled. "Impressive. You must know Crash Bandicoot. You may pass." A trapdoor opened above and a staircase fell down. Ember sighed and reared her head back, preparing to use water breath. Flame bolted upright, sensing the water, and sped up the staircase.

"GAH! I hate WATER!" The others exchanged quick laughs and ran up after him.

END CHAPTER 12!

Next time, Chapter 13- That Staff is WHOSE?


	14. That Staff is WHOSE?

**Alright, here's the next chapter! **

**Chapter 13- That Staff is WHOSE?**  
OBSERVATION TOWER, ICEBERG LAB 0915 HOURS

As they arrived at the highest point of the tower-like lab, they arrived in a circular room. There were no walls; just windows, so that they could see for miles in every direction. Cynder squinted, and was just able to make out the beach of N. Sanity island. Epsilon was staring at the miles of snowy ground in front of them. Then he turned around. "Dark gem..." He muttered. The others turned around and sure enough, there it was; three pink, crystal shaped gems sticking out of the ground; a black aura swirling around them. White Mage smiled.

"Piece of cake!" She said. She walked forward, but Zero stuck his saber in front of her. Luigi looked around the room, nervously.

"It's too easy! Things are NEVER this easy." He said. Shadow nodded and cautiously took a step toward the gem. A fireball exploded right next to him. He stepped back, and shook his head at White Mage. Surely enough, Scrimegour emerged from an elevator shaking his head. His eyes first met Cynder's, giving her a mocking smirk. Bowser laughed.

"Hah! All of us, against one of you! That's pathetic!" Scrimegour shook his head.

"And that's where you're wrong, stupid turtle." The elevator made a small 'ding' noise and the doors slid open. Ember, Cynder and Flame gasped at the six dragons that stood before them. "I'm sure you nine know each other." He smiled as he pushed a lock of his hair back. Zane laughed.

"Oh... this is ALL TOO PERFECT!" To think we'd catch up with you guys this quickly! Now we can kick your butts, AND get that lovely reward we've been promised!" Cynder launched a warning fireball at Zane, who quickly dodged. Alicia stepped in front of him and hissed.

"Don't you think about touching him!" She snarled. Suddenly, Alicia screamed and grabbed her shoulder. She removed her hand and looked at the wet blood on her hand, Epsilon stood in front of her, his sword unsheathed.

"I don't think you'll be doing much of anything to them." He said. He shot his arm forward, and six shadow balls emerged from them, slamming into their targets and knocking them off their feet. Thorn quickly stood up, and launched at Epsilon, knocking him over. Epsilon quickly kicked Thorn off with his two legs and roared. All the windows suddenly shattered. But it was what followed next that startled everyone. There was a loud, sickening scream coming from the corner of the room. Scrimegour lay on the ground, a large cut in his arm; and standing about him, was Guy.

"YOU!" All the heroes shouted at once. Guy shook his head, the eerie red glow from his visor showing on Pikachu's startled face.

"Muahahaha. You didn't think I wasn't in this place because I just wandered in here. This staff is a lovely gift to have... and I will take pleasure in burying you all with it!" He slammed it on the ground. A shockwave rippled out, knocking everyone over. Frieze got up and grunted in pain.

"Who the heck is this loser?" He grabbed Flame by the neck, choking him.

"gack That's Guy! cough We met him here!" Frieze opened his mouth, unleashing a stream of ice breath. Flame was frozen solid by the attack. Frieze dropped him on the ground and turned to a charging Ember and drop kicked her, knocking the wind out of her. Zane meanwhile was exchanging tail swipes with Cynder. Guy suddenly slammed the staff on the ground again.

"I HATE being ignored! You little weasels won't be escaping me this time!" The room suddenly changed, and they were all standing on a small, crescent-moon platform, Guy was facing them on another. He laughed. "You fools don't realize what this staff can do... can you? Do you even know how Scrimegour got it? He STOLE it! And from whom... you ask? Why from none other than everyone's favorite purple dragon... SPYRO!" Everyone jumped back, shaken by this statement. Guy shook his head.

"This staff was hand crafted by Tray and a select group of dragons and Phoenixes. All because they knew of the prophecy. On the night of 'The Massacre', Scrimegour stole the staff and used it to perform unspeakable horrors on innocent dragons." Guy laughed again. "And now the staff is in my hands, which spells your DOOM!" He slams the staff on the ground, creating a shockwave. The crescent platform begins to disintegrate and the gap in front of him became filled with small electronic squares. All heroes jump onto the squares, but the dragons just fly. Flame groans.

"Doesn't this guy have any originality?" Shadow creases his face in anger and shakes his head.

"Obviously not. He's altered his entire identity!" Zane suddenly slammed Flame in the head.

"You retards! This is all your faults! I'm gonna kicks your butts so hard... your children will be feeling it!" Zane and his friends line up, facing the four good dragons, which do the same. Guy throws his head back and laughs.

"So we're going three-way, huh? Muahahahaha! This should be FUN!"

END CHAPTER 13!

**Alright, our first battle chapter is coming!**

Next time, Chapter 14- Guy's Secret Power


	15. Guy's Secrect Power

**Here it is! The first chapter dedicated to battling!**

**Chapter 14- Guy's Secret Power**

Everyone in the arena is still. Every side is waiting for the other to strike first. Epsilon glances around the arena. "Forget it." He whispered. He then disappeared, only to reappear behind Alicia and elbow her in the back. She gasps and swings around, but Epsilon ducks and thrusts both his hands forward. A stream of black and purple energy flies out of it, knocking her toward Cynder, who suddenly rushes at her, horns first. She picks up so much speed, she catches on fire and bursts through Alicia, knocking her down toward Bowser. Bowser gets in his shell and starts spinning around rapidly. She rebounds off his shell, gripping her back in agony, trying to wipe off the blood. Cynder floats there, startled.

"Comet dash... but only Spyro knew that move... how?" Suddenly, she is struck by a flaming cog-like shape. Guy laughs and turns the staff sideways. A stream of electricity flies out from it, after the heroes. Zero double jumps over it and then midair dashes toward Guy. Zero then stabs down with a huge metal saber, which explodes on contact with Guy. He shoots a fireball at Zero, knocking him at Zane, who's swooping to slam him with his tail. Suddenly Zero creates three robot dragonflies which start hovering around him. Zane slams into them, and is shot back by a massive surge of energy.

"GAH! I'm sick of this!" Zane screams. Flame flies at him and slashes him with his claws, drawing some blood. Zane retaliates by stabbing Flame in the back. Flame roars and is then kneed in the stomach. Meanwhile, Alix is rapidly shooting electric arcs from her mouth. One manages to hit the circling Ember and traps her in a cage of electric energy. Ember screams as Guy simultaneously strikes her with another line of electricity. Bowser suddenly leaps up in the air and Bowser Bombs Guy, who is slammed into the ground. White Mage lands on the platform and begins spinning her mallet around rapidly, turning her into a human top. She spins into Guy, dealing some powerful whacks to the stomach. The combo is instantly broken by Eliza who wrestles Cynder to the ground. Cynder suddenly unleashes a stream of black flames, knocking the screaming Eliza into Shadow who thrusts both his arms to his sides.

"Chaos... BLAST!" He screamed. A huge explosion appears near him. Eliza flies back onto the crescent platform Guy was on, her entire left side charred and bruised from the explosion. Shadow suddenly reappears next to her and deals a powerful uppercut, as Cynder comet dashes into her, knocking her into a Thunderbolt from Pikachu. Pikachu suddenly charges toward Zane. 

"Ha... you think a ram attack will work?" Suddenly, a barrier of raw electricity envelopes Pikachu who volt tackles Zane, burning his entire chest and knocking him into Doopliss. Doopliss head butts him and pulls out his broken umbrella. He waves it around, and it suddenly begins glowing white. He opens the umbrella, releasing a huge stream of energy which envelops Zane and the nearby Flame. They both are knocked into each other. Ember suddenly is knocked into the energy beam by Frieze and Thorn. Thorn is then violently electrocuted by Luigi, who was using his Thunderhand power. Luigi then crouches down and super jumps into the air. He lands on Frieze, who is slammed into the ground. Epsilon suddenly slashes thin air with his hand. A giant purple energy crescent emerges and flies into Frieze. Thorn dodges it and slashes Epsilon in the face. 

Epsilon gets angry. A dangerous black aura emanates around him. Epsilon rises into the air. His body suddenly explodes as black energy beams fly out everywhere, hitting all enemies, except Guy who put up a barrier. The six dragons collapsed on the crescent platform, unconscious. Suddenly, Guy slams his staff again and three electric waves shoot out. They hit all except Luigi and Cynder, and everyone hit instantly fell unconscious. Cynder gripped her chest, which now had a huge vertical cut that was slowly bleeding. Half her face was covered in the shiny red substance, four large claw marks clearly visible inches away from her eye. Luigi seemed in one piece, as did Guy, except for a small scratch on the single earring on his left ear.

"Well, now that we've taken care of those pesky weaklings... whats say we turn up the intensity!" Guy pulled out a beaker with a clear, bubbling substance in it. He drinks it and throws the beaker away. A blinding white light envelopes Guy. When the light vanishes, he suddenly has giant metal gauntlets on his hands and legs. They are connected to his visor via several wires which rap around his arms and legs. He now also has a metal chest and back plate which also plug into the visor. Luigi and Cynder gasp at the spectacular change. "Witness my SECRET POWER!" Guy raises one of his hands, and blue electrical energy begins to form a sphere in his hand. He shoots it forward and its size rapidly increases. Luigi super jumps over the ball and Cynder tries to dodge it, but her tail is hit and she yelps as smoke begins rising from the burnt tail. Guy begins forming another energy sphere. Luigi's hand forms its own sphere as well. The two release there energies, which collide in midair. A large explosion and blinding white light occur. Both sides glare as they cover there faces from the attack.

Cynder suddenly rushes toward Guy and slams him with her hind legs. She follows up by shooting three black fireballs at him. The first hits, causing a small explosion, but Guy then puts one of his hands forward. A wall of electricity emerges from it and deflects the attack. Luigi, who sneaked up behind Guy, suddenly launches himself, head first, at Guy. His Luigi Missile move hits its mark, and Guy somersaults to keep his balance. He slams the staff on the ground, creating a much larger than normal shockwave. Both heroes are hit by the attack. Luigi is knocked into the air, toward a wall. He uses the momentum to push him off the wall, and flies back at Guy. With the extra speed, his Luigi Missile sends Guy into the air, where Cynder slams her wings into him. The spikes on the end of the wings succeed in cutting Guy's shoulders. The two heroes then rush at Guy, and slam into him with intense speed, he collapses on the ground, as he and the room return to normal.

"DRAT! I was so close! So close!" As he finished speaking, his body split into two holographic forms then disappeared, as he teleported away. White Mage got up and began tending to the four dragons' wounds. Luigi walks up to the dark gem and hammers it, causing it to break.

"Yay! Go-igi! Go-igi!" He began chanting as he did a little victory dance. Cynder smiled and chuckled.

"We only have two more to get... for now anyway." She stared at the collapsed Zane and his friends. "Hmph... they don't deserve to be healed or anything, White Mage." She sneered. The shot cuts to the roof of the lab. Guy is standing there, holding Scrimegour's limp body. He sighs and shakes his heads.

"Those fools. They will die. An assassin never fails in killing his targets. He tosses Scrimegour's body, which falls into the ocean. He laughs and teleports away. 

END CHAPTER 14!

**Another dark gem destroyed! And with it, a new enemy! What other crazy things can happen? Tune in to find out!**

Next time, Chapter 15- Cynder's Dream


	16. Cynder's Dream

**Chapter 15- Cynder's Dream**  
PEACH'S CASTLE 2301 HOURS

We open in a small bedroom. There are no distinctive features to it. It's normal; and is also pitch black. However, Cynder is tossing in her sleep. This is followed by some sort of moaning which can be made out as. "No... must... get... ARGH!"

_CYNDER'S DREAM- DRAGON TEMPLE, 150 YEARS AGO___

_Cynder was quietly sitting, staring at the large statue in front of her. She sighed, happily. She had been waiting for this moment for a long time. It was the first real birthday she'd be able to have. All the other ones were spent under the influence of the Dark Master; there had been no time for things such as this. Since Spyro had managed to defeat the Dark Master, a large group of dragons came here from another part of the world, seeking a place to live. It made things a lot less boring than they'd been before. She stood up and walked out one of the doors down the path to the balcony overlooking the large village. She saw several dragons already beginning stir. She looked up at the sun, which had now fully risen. ___

_"Guess who!" A voice said from behind as Spyro jumped in front of Cynder, startling her slightly. ___

_"You scared me! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Cynder said, before she and Spyro laughed at the comment. She stared as Spyro tried to think of something to say. His eyes lit up, as if remembering something.___

_"Oh... I almost forgot... today's your birthday, isn't it?" Cynder nodded, a small smile beginning to brake out. Spyro pulled out a necklace. The necklace consisted of several shimmering diamonds that gleamed in the morning light. She looked at it, speechless. She slowly reached out and took it, then put it on. She blushed slightly.___

_"Oh, Spyro... I... don't know what to say." She said. Spyro pawed at the ground. ___

_"Oh... well... it was nothing, really! I just found them by the temple and thought..." But Spyro lost his train of thought as Cynder ran to him and hugged him, a few tears streaming down her face.___

_"Thank you." She whispered. "This is... the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me." Spyro nodded, and the two of them turned to look at the necklace. _

Suddenly, the dream turned faded away and turned into something completely different.

_We're in a cave. Two figures are standing in it, talking. We suddenly turn and see Cynder frozen in the ice wall. One of the figures is Severus. The other is a blood red dragoness, with long black horns and spikes down her back. The tip of her tail is a black, spiked mace. Severus laughs.___

_"Ah ha ha ha ha. That pitiful Dark Master was the worst minion I've ever claimed. Not only did he fail in killing Spyro, he LOST to him." Severus's smile faded. "Of course, I can't completely issue blame. I'm stunned that Spyro's egg did not remain permanently frozen like the spell should have done. Some greater magic must have undone it." He shakes his head. "No matter, now it is your turn, Kira." He turns to the red dragoness.___

_"You know all of that pitiful dragon's moves, and have been given the ability to cast basic Dark Magic. I won't tolerate failure anymore." Kira nodded.___

_"As you wish, oh Dark Lord." She bowed and flew down toward the beach. Severus laughed.___

_"Oh Spyro... your creation was my biggest mistake, and your sudden existence is but a constant reminder of the evils the master gem showed me." He laughed._

The dream fades again, and then reappears.

_The view is of the same cave as before. Severus is floating in it, peering into a crystal ball. A much larger, adult Spyro is talking to a group of hatchlings. Severus punches the wall. ___

_"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He screams. "It... can't be... he's beaten everything I've thrown at him." He floats away from the crystal ball, a black aura forming around him; he suddenly morphs into a male, black dragon with blood red horns. He is about the same size as Spyro is in the dream, but much more muscular. ___

_"If I must transform into my old body to have the magic and moves to kill you... so be it." He growled and looked over the village. "This time, I shall be victorious!" He roared. The shot cuts down to the village, where several startled dragons look up, wondering where the roar originated._

Cynder bolted upright, panting and sweating. She turned on the nearby lamp and sat up, tears streaming down her face. A dark, smooth voice rings out through the room. "What's the matter… bad dream?" She turns to the voice, a dragon as black as the night, with black horns, and black spikes running town his back to his tail. His eyes were also black.

"Oh… it's you again… Nightshade… I mean Tray." Tray smirked before transforming before her eyes into a robot. He had slick black armor, the arms, hands and ankles were white, as was the top of the helmet. He wrapped himself around with his black cloak, so only his eyes and helmet were visible.

"At least you remembered." Cynder sighed, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Why are you here?" Tray smirks.

"To ask you a question. You haven't told them yet, have you?" Cynder shook her head. "Good, then I'll be off." Tray snapped his fingers and teleported away. Cynder lay back down.

_I can't tell them! I won't! But what if the truth…can set him free?_

END CHAPTER 15!

Next time, Chapter 16- Guy's Plan


	17. Guy's Plan

**Chapter 16- Guy's Plan**  
GATE'S LABORATORY 2301 HOURS

We open in a dark hallway. A figure is moving swiftly through it, until he rounds a corner, where he stops. He starts walking toward the doorway at the end; the hallway glows red due to his visor. He stops and reads the sign on the door, 'EMERGENCIES ONLY.' He smiles and pushes the door open. He walks into an enormous circular room. There are four tubes filled with a strange green liquid lighting up the room. They are each connected to computers. One of these computers is flickering brightly. The figure turns his attention to it. Several ancient symbols and text are flashing on and off it, and then the outline of a dragon appears. The computer scans it, notifying several malfunctions in the body, while the computer also takes a pulse, blood pressure, and reflex. The figure glares at the machine.

"Hmph. At this rate, I'll have to wait at least another day. I don't have that time." He looks over at a flashing green button, an evil grin forming. He taps the computer with his staff. The screen suddenly flashes white, along with the thing floating in the tube. A sign flashes on the screen, 'HEALING COMPLETE.' The figure presses the green button. The liquid drains from the tube. The dozens of wires and oxygen mask that were attached to the thing in it detach themselves and the creature slumps on the floor. The figure walks over and rubs it. "WAKE UP!" He yelled. The dragon jumped to his feet, turning to face the figure.

"HEY! What the heck do you think you're doing? You don't work for master Gate!" Spyro growled. "Who are you?" The figure smiled.

"That is of no importance to you, Spyro. You may call my Guy" Spyro looked at the figure in shock. The shock soon turned to anger again.

"Why are you here?" Guy shook his head.

"Well, I could easily ask you the same question, Spyro. I've come to talk with you. As of now you are slaving under Gate and his puppet, Nightmare Severus." Spyro suddenly lunged forward, to try and tackle Guy. He dodged the attack and slammed Spyro with his staff. Spyro growled at him.

"That's Scrimegour's staff! How did you..." Guy laughed.

"'That's Scrimegour's staff!' give me a break! You don't know the truths about this? Oh well. Now... on to business. You're toiling under Severus's will. Do you want to know why?" Spyro shook his head.

"I'm not working for him! He showed me the light! He showed me the wonders of being evil!" Spyro smiled, but Guy shook his head.

"WRONG!" He yelled, as he shot a fireball at Spyro, knocking him into the glass tube and breaking it. A few small cuts appeared on him. "Severus has you under his control because of the prophecy." Spyro rubbed his head.

"What prophecy?" Spyro grumbled.

"The prophecy that states that you, a purple dragon born with the gift of the ancients, would finally kill the Dark Lord once and for all." Spyro looked at him in confusion. 

"But how would Severus know this?" Guy sighed. 

"If I am correct, and I always am, you were reincarnated. After freeing that little black dragon from the ice, you suddenly gained memory of your ENTIRE first life." Spyro nodded. An evil grin appeared on Guy's face. "Before Vraël was transformed into Severus, he had a wife, and they had an egg. He used his magic to predict the type of dragon it would be. It was to be a purple dragon, of ancient descent." Guy laughed again; Spyro began to shiver in fear mouthing "not true" and "impossible" to himself. "It was then, that he found the master gem and transformed. After his transformation, he used his newfound abilities to peer into the master gem, and saw something horrible. That his own son would be the one to kill the newfound darkness and power in him." Spyro's eyes widened.

"NO! I..." he began as tears started rolling down his face, "DON'T BELIEVE..." Guy shot another fireball at him.

"SILENCE!" He continued. "In his demented rage, he casted a spell that froze your egg in time, and hid it in a tree. He then killed his wife, who had witnessed the event. YOU..." he pointed to Spyro, "..._ARE_ HIS SON!" Spyro's hands shook with rage. 

"No... NO... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Guy laughed and shook his head.

"Who had sent Cynder and Gaul to try and destroy you; this 'Dark Master?' NO! He did this under Severus's orders. When he failed, Severus sent Kira after you. It was your toughest battle ever, but you prevailed with a newly rediscovered Convexity Fury. Severus, outraged by this, transformed into his original dragon form. Does the name, Damian ring a bell?" Spyro gapsed.

"Damian..." Guy laughed again.

"The dragon that killed you using dark magic? YES! That was Severus's form before he was corrupted by the master gem! It was HIS fault you died! And it was HIS fault that Cynder was frozen in the ice for 150 years! What Severus didn't expect was Vic using his magic to create a second life for you. When your egg was created. Severus came out of hiding, brainwashed hundreds of magical creatures and marched on the dragon realms. Within his ranks were two humans, who served as his generals. One was Deblin Spiro, and the other, Jonathan Scrimegour." Spyro gasped at the name.

"The dragons fought bravely, but Severus, Spiro and Scrimegour managed to find their way to your egg. Your parents for your second life, fought bravely, but Severus killed them when Spiro and Scrimegour couldn't defeat them. It was then that Vic secretly teleported you and your brother's egg to a secure location. It was also then, that Scrimegour found a staff, this staff, hidden in the back room. He took it, and then marched with Severus to begin attacking the innocent." Guy shook his head. "This night was known as 'The Massacre.'" Spyro sat up, completely shocked.

"But what of Deblin? He had actually faked being brainwashed, and once your egg was safe, followed Severus and began killing his troops using the magic and swordsmanship abilities that Severus bestowed upon him. Finally, he found Severus. The two dueled; it was like nothing ever seen. Terrifying spells flying back and forth, but in the end, Spiro stabbed Severus through the heart, supposedly killing him." Guy shook his head. "But it didn't. Only the host body would be destroyed if Severus was killed the normal way. So his spirit found his way toward Gate, who gave him a body by using computer programming, and turning him into a nightmare." Guy shook his head.

"The only way to kill Severus is to destroy the master gem. But only those of ancient descent can touch the gem, others who try, are turned to stone. That's where you come in." Guy laughed. "You are to seek the gem and bring it to me, where we will hatch my master plan." Spyro leaned in, eager to know. Guy leaned up to him and whispered. An evil grin appeared on Spyro's face. (Authors note: What, you think I'm gonna actually reveal it?)

"I'm in," He replied, his blood red eyes sparkling in the light of Guy's visor and the light of the orb. Spyro reached out with his tattooed hand and touched the orb. A stunning blood red aura surrounded him as his entire body suddenly doubled in muscle mass. His normally golden spikes, horns and underbelly, now turned blood red, and his teeth became more fang-like. The two villains shook hands.

"Then... IT BEGINS!" Guy shouted and teleported away. Spyro stood there.

"I might as well stay here. If I'm lucky, I'll get sent to fight that pathetic Cynder again." He smiled and walked out of the room, the blood red aura slowly dieing down.

END CHAPTER 16!

**DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN! Shocking, isn't it? Will there be any way to break the spell? You'll have to stay tuned!**

Next time, Chapter 17- Storming the Desert


	18. Stormin' the Desert!

**Chapter 17- To the Desert!**  
PEACH'S CASTLE 0800 HOURS

All the heroes are standing by the front door, waiting for Cynder, who was mysteriously gone from her room when Pikachu went to check on her in the middle of the night. She finally walks down the stairs, her head drooping. Bowser notices her. "Hey! There she is! Where were you last night?" Cynder looked up.

"Oh... I was just out flying... I couldn't fall asleep." She lied. Bowser nodded and turned to Luigi.

"Alright, Luigi... you sure the Jeep can fit all of us?" Luigi nodded.

"Yeah... but one of you four has to fly." Cynder looks up.

"I'll..." But Cynder is stopped by Epsilon.

"I'll go myself. I'll see you later." Epsilon teleports away. They all look at each other, silently.

"Let's get in the car." Shadow said. They all nodded and left the castle

KOOPAHARI DESERT 0945 HOURS

The Jeep comes to a screeching halt in front of a large dome. It has the face of a Koopa on it. There are several solar panels on top of the roof. "Those must be the panels Dr. Lelenthal was talking about!" White Mage said. Zero nodded.

"So how are we supposed to get inside?" He asked. Epsilon suddenly floated around from the other side to the front door. He opened it and seven nightmares charged out and circled around him. He slammed the ground with his fist, which was glowing green, and an earth breath shockwave rippled out around him, destroying the nightmares. He turned to the others.

"Are you coming or not?" He said. They all nodded and followed him inside.

KOOPASEUM 0950 HOURS

They walk into a large hallway. The floor and walls are gold, decorated with purple tapestry, displaying Gate's logo on it. Luigi sighs. "Well," he began, "there's our proof Gate has this building under his control." They arrive at a circular structure at the front of the hallway. "This would be the arena. I remember it from when I went here on an adventure with Mario. If we were to find the dark gem anywhere, it would be here."

"Not so fast. You've been having much too easy of a time with this. I'm here to spice things up! Ah ha ha ha!" Cynder looks up.

"That laugh... NO!" A purple box appears over her, and Nightmare Severus teleports in.

"Yes! It is I... and I've come to wreck horror on you unlucky little heroes!" Bowser laughs.

"HA! Big deal! I fought someone who looked JUST like you! This should be a..." Severus raises his arms in the air. A bolt of lightning flashes on Bowser, burning him. "...snap?" He finished, steam pouring out of his mouth. He falls over backwards. Severus floats over them all and waves one hand in the air. Seven shadow balls fly out and start falling at them fast. Zero quickly takes out his saber and swings it, deflecting most of the energy balls. One heads toward Cynder, who shoots it back at Severus with her flame breath. Severus dodges the attack and puts his hands forward; a steady stream of flames launches itself at Shadow. Shadow barely dodges the attack while delivering a kick to Severus foot.

"Tsk tsk. It will take more than that to defeat moi!" He raises his hands again. Shadow quickly jumps to avoid a bolt of lightning, and then rolls to dodge a second. He pulls out a sparkling green gem.

"Chaos... CONTROL!" He calls out. Everything suddenly freezes, except Epsilon and Cynder. Shadow and Epsilon quickly begin delivering punches to the frozen Severus, while Cynder stares at the frozen, and now oddly colored environment. Shadow looks at her.

"How are you not frozen? That's... not possible." Cynder goes up to Severus and melees him with her tail. Shadow puts the gem away and everything unfreezes.

"YOWCH! What happened? DRAT! Someone here has a Chaos Emerald." Severus snaps his fingers and vanishes. Suddenly, four purple boxes appear and four Severuses follow. "Can you pierce this illusion?" They all ask simultaneously. Luigi super jumps into Severus 1, who disappears after he is struck and reappears next to Flame.

"Boo!" He says. Flame jumps back, before shooting out fireballs in an unusual pattern, such that Severus 1 can't dodge them all. When the attack finishes, Severus 1 vanishes in a puff of smoke. Meanwhile, Pikachu is shooting thunderbolts at Severus 2, who responds with his own bolts of lightning. Ember sneaks up behind him, and uppercuts Severus 2, who turns and fires a stream of ice out of his hands. Ember uses her flame breath to cancel out the attack and jumps up to Severus 2 before body slamming him. Severus 2 disappears. Doopliss head butts Severus 3, who flies into White Mage's mallet. She then runs after Severus 3, she plants her mallet on the ground, and uses it like a pole vault to lift her into the air. She tackles Severus 3, and then casts Holy, causing it to disappear.

Cynder is flying away from a stream of dark energy coming from the real Severus. Epsilon flies up into the air and knocks Cynder and himself out of the way of the attack. Pikachu then Iron Tails Severus, while Bowser slashes Severus with his claw. Severus falls to the ground.

"ARGH! No! I've lost!" Severus lies on the ground. "How is this possible?" Cynder walks up to him, smirking.

"It could be the fact that you're outnumbered, idiot." Severus glares at her, before rising in the air.

"You may have beaten me, but I shall return!" Severus teleports out.

"That was... weird." Bowser comments.

They walk into the arena, there are several wires extending in from doors at the bottom to a giant computer. A robot is hovering there typing into it. "YES!" He screams. "YES! Soon the fertilization shall be complete!" Shadow elbows Bowser.

"Look! The dark gem. The computer's plugged into it!" Bowser looks from Shadow's angle and sees an extension cord wrapped around the glowing dark gem. 

"GRAH!" Everyone turns and glares at Bowser. Suddenly, the robot looks up. His eyes widen as he glares at them.

"YOU! Gate has told me much about you. Powerful you are... but more powerful I am!" Bowser smacks his head. Luigi falls down anime-style.

"Oh great," Luigi begins, "First Bowyer and Fawful, now this guy. Must every adventure that I'm teamed up with Bowser involve someone who lacks proper grammar skills?"

"NYAH! Stop ignoring me! Show you all... I SHALL!"

Zero steps forward. "sigh, all these old enemies. You think Gate would be creative enough to make new ones." Yammark starts off by flying towards Zero, who double jumps over Yammark then uses the Quake Blazer ability. Yammark instantly lights on fire and begins running around.

"GAH! ON FIRE I AM! PUT IT OUT I MUST! NYAH!!!" Ember steps in front of him.

"Here, let me help you with that." Her smile quickly turns to anger as she releases a steady stream of water breath. Sparks fly out of Yammark, who starts flashing white before exploding.

"That was pathetically easy." Epsilon commented. Shadow stepped toward the dark gem, about to smash it when the wall next to him explodes. He glares back at them.

"Idiots, it's NEVER this easy!" He growls. He stares over as four Koopas stand up. Their shells are each different colors, and they are wearing bandannas that match the shell color.

"HEY!" Bowser yells out. "What do you shell-for-brains think you're doing here?" The red Koopa steps out from the smoke.

"Whoa, BUMMER! It's King B... we're like, totally busted man!" Red turns to his three cohorts, who step out. One is black, one is green, and the other is yellow. Cynder starts speaking.

"Just who are these brainless idiots? And why are they here?" She asked.

"Who are we? YELLOW, CUE THE THEME!" The yellow Koopa nods and runs out the hole, coming back with a stereo speaker. Yellow pushes the play button on the speaker. Music starts playing. Red steps forward.

"RED!" He starts. Black steps forward next.

"BLACK!" Green steps forward.

"GREEN!" Yellow steps forward.

"YELLOW!" They all point towards the heroes.

"AND WE ARE..." The all flash thumbs up poses. "THE KOOPA BROS.!" Bowser smacks his forehead. Red starts speaking.

"We heard from some dude in a mask that that there 'gnarly gem of darkness' packs some serious power! And we want it for ourselves!" Shadow groans.

"Dude in a mask... Guy. GREAT!" He growls. Flame steps forward.

"Yeah, well that 'gnarly gem of darkness' is about to get shattered into a million 'gnarly' pieces! So deal with it!" Red shakes his head.

"No way dudes! Let us have the gem or get ready to be shell-shocked!" Ember laughs.

"HA! It's 10 on 4! What makes you think you guys are winning?" Red strikes his pose again.

"We got us some 'friends'." Bowser groans.

"Wait... do you know their 'friends?'" Epsilon growls. Bowser nods.

"My minions that I left in the castle..." Suddenly, six figures come in. Bowser smacks his forehead.

"GRAH! Paragoomba! Kamek (a Magikoopa in blue robes)! Dexter (a Chain Chomp with nerdy, taped glasses, and a laptop)! Hammer Bro.! Shadow Mario?! And... a blue Koopa dressed like you clowns?" Red turns to the blue Koopa.

"BLUE! You were SUPPOSED to enter with us, dude! Ya gotta pay attention, newbie, or you won't last very long!" Red turns back to Bowser. Shadow, meanwhile, is attempting to choke Ember.

"You had to open your big mouth, huh? Now we're in for serious trouble!" Dexter spoke up.

"Nerr... I shot dibs on the hawt babe in the white robes!" White Mage backs away.

"EEEEEEEW! NO! PLEASE, GOD, NO!" Red speaks up again.

"Koopa Bros. and lameos... ATTACK!"

END CHAPTER 17!

**Another all battle chapter will be coming at you guys!**

Next time, Chapter 18- Attack of the Koopa Bros!


	19. Attack of the Koopa Bros!

**Author's Note: This was the last update made on a different site, so updates will coming more slowly since I have to generate them now. **

**Chapter 18- Attack of the Koopa Bros!**

The Koopa Bros. all ducked into their shells and lunged at four of the heroes. Red goes in for Bowser, who ducks into his own shell and starts spinning at Red. The two knock into each other, and fly around the arena. Finally, Bowser leaps in the air, and slams down into Red, who is flung into Shadow who warps behind Red and uppercuts him. Shadow ducks under Black, who jumps at him. Shadow kicks his left foot back, striking Black but doing nothing. Black rebounds off the wall and heads back for Shadow. Shadow quickly back flips onto Black's shell, and begins "surfing" on the shell.

Cynder dives at Green, who ducks into his shell and spins away to dodge the attack. He uses one of the stair rails to launch himself at Cynder, and delivers a powerful kick to her stomach. Cynder and Green begin exchanging punches and kicks as they slam into the ground. They roll around, one trying to pin the other down. But they are both pried apart by Shadow and Black, who bowl right through them. Shadow punches an incoming Paragoomba, who was hurtling toward him after a blast from Zero's Z-Buster. Zero fires another shot as he double jumps above the incoming Shadow Mario, who is running away from the pursuing Epsilon. Epsilon also fires a shadow ball. He quickly ducks and the two attacks miss, hitting Pikachu in the back.

Pikachu flies in the air, but quickly uses his momentum to Pika Missile, Hammer Bro. Hammer Bro. jumps in the air and throws a hammer like a boomerang, but Pikachu lightning boosts into the air and Iron Tails Hammer Bro., who retaliates by using his shell and hammer to bounce of one of the seats and head butt Pikachu.

Ember and White Mage, meanwhile, are running from the pursuing Dexter and Blue. Blue calls out to Ember. Shadow suddenly surfs by on Black, he jumps off and kicks Black's shell, knocking him into Blue, who trips and falls over. Dexter calls out.

"Wait up... I haven't had to run this much since Elementary School!" Dexter suddenly trips over his chain and starts rolling, beginning to pick up speed. He flattens White Mage then turns and whips her with his chain. Ember shoots a fireball at Blue, who kicks through it, knocking Ember in the head. She plummets to the ground and stands up, wiping the trickle of blood from her mouth, she jumps at Blue and slams into him with her hind legs, knocking him into Paragoomba, who uses the momentum to head butt Doopliss. The two of them exchange midair head butts, until Black flies in and kicks Doopliss. Shadow lands on top of him and slams him with his fists. Paragoomba flaps his wings fast, creating a mini-tornado which hurls Shadow into the wall.

Flame suddenly ducks under a punch from Yellow, then leaps over a kick, while delivering one of his own. Yellow pushes off the wall and Shell Slams Flame, who topples into Cynder, knocking her out of the way of a Bullet Bill, which Shadow Mario created with his magic paintbrush. 

Zero and Kamek are now firing blasts at each, while circling around. Kamek finally decides to fire a continuous stream of magic. Luigi suddenly leaps onto him out of nowhere. The two begin punching and kicking. Luigi uses Thunderhand on Kamek, paralyzing him. Zero rolls to the side and dashes toward Kamek, and performs the Shippuuga ability, knocking Kamek off his feet, and into a Thunderbolt from Pikachu, who also hits Hammer Bro. He begins shooting small electrical balls at Hammer Bro., but Hammer Bro. uses his hammer to deflect them, then charges at Pikachu and hammers him on the head. White Mage runs into Hammer Bro. knocking him down. She quickly Mallet Vaults into the stands and the dazed Hammer Bro. is run over by Dexter, who's using his spin dash again. Luigi takes out his Ultra Hammer and swings it back like a golf club. "FOUR!" He yelled and swung the hammer, knocking Dexter into the wall. White Mage slams into him from above with her mallet.

Cynder meanwhile, melees Green with her tail and hits him with a stream of black flames. Shadow back flips over a kick from Black and snaps his fingers. The area where Black was explodes knocking him into the air. He collides with Blue, who was blasted by Ember. Red is sent hurtling into a corner by a throw from Bowser.

"BROS... REGROUP!" The four other Koopas gathered by Red.

"Dudes... this fight is a real bummer! Time to show them our _special move_!" The Koopa Bros. nod and leap into the air. They form a tower with Blue on the bottom, then Yellow, then Green, the Black, and Red on top.

"GRA HA HA HA HA!" Bowser laughs. "You're 'special move' sucks! You couldn't hit a Goomba with it!" The tower begins spinning in place gaining speed. Bowser gulps. 

"CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE DUDES!" Red yells out. The tower moves forward at a super fast speed. Bowser dives out of the way, and delivers a roundhouse kick to the tower, but it only seems to increase the velocity. The tower flies out of control into Doopliss and Paragoomba, throwing them aside like mere rags. The tower slams into the wall and flies at Luigi, who tries to jump the attack, but ends up on top of the tower.

"MAMMA MIA!" He yells as he starts running comic-style to stay on the tower, which next heads for Zero and Kamek. Zero rolls aside to try and dodge it, but is hit and rolls backwards into Kamek. They roll toward Shadow Mario who raises his paintbrush in the air. Ten bowling pins appear and the two blast through them, as he dodges. 

"STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERIKE!" Shadow Mario yells, only to be stabbed in the back by Cynder's horns. The two are promptly struck by the tower and fly into the stands. The tower now heads for Flame who tries to fly over it, but trips on the way up and lands on Luigi's head.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" They both scream as they slip. Flame grabs Red's shell, latching his talons into it. Luigi grabs Flame's leg. The tower hurtles toward Ember who grabs Dexter's chain, and with incredible strength, spins him into the tower. But the tower proves more powerful and knocks him towards the wall. He breaks the wall and continues flying into a water fountain. The tower rebounds off Dexter; Luigi grabs his hammer and slams the wall, which crumbles seconds before he would have been flattened by it.

"Where's the off switch on this thing?!?!" Flame yells out. He suddenly swears as he slams into a metal pole. His grip slips slightly, his eyes widening as he tries to hold on. The tower heads for Shadow and White Mage and Pikachu now. Pikachu quickly jumps into the stands and White Mage Mallet Vaults with him. Shadow turns the opposite directions and starts running; actually, he's using his trademark rocket skates. Shadow quickly turns and 720s off of the wall just at the tower rebounds and begins heading for Epsilon. Epsilon turns his head and teleports, reappearing behind the middle of the tower. He slams it with the blunt of his sword and the tower explodes, hurtling the seven fighters in different directions. Red flies into the dark gem, the force of the collision shattering the gem.

The dust settles as Epsilon, White Mage and Pikachu help those hit by the attack up. Shadow walks over to Bowser and punches him in the face. "You and Ember need to learn when it's the APPROPRIATE time to mock someone!" He grumbles and walks toward the computer. "Well..." he began, "if any good came out of this, the dark gem was destroyed by the Brainless Bros." Bowser flashed another victory pose.

"And so I, Bowser, have once again emerged victorious!" A wave of black flames rushes over him. A black outline stands there, two eyes blink, removing the soot over them. Everyone turns to Cynder who just smiles and laughs. 

END CHAPTER 18!

**And so ends part one of this Fan Fiction. The next segment is Part 2: The Great Villain Catastrophe! No, I'm not making a new, separate story for Part 2. So keep tuned to THIS one! **

Next time, Chapter 19- The Warning


	20. A Beacon of Light

**Author's Note: I'm planning on possibly changing my user name. Just thought you'd want to know. Anyway, here's the first chapter in part 2; I edited the title, because I felt it more appropriate. There's just one thing I'm gonna clear up, and that's why Sparx isn't in this (cause he appears this update). Sparx is on vacation in Dragonfly Falls. I'll probably bring him back if I make a sequel. **

**Chapter 19- A Beacon of Light**

PEACH'S CASTLE 2300 HOURS

We open on the roof of a castle. A shadowy figure sits perched above a window. We zoom into the window, and everything instantly turns black.

_DRAGON TEMPLE, 150 YEARS AGO_

_We're in the room with the dragon statue. Spyro is lying there, talking to Ignitus, his mentor, who's staring at him closely. Spyro seems occupied with something. "…I think it's a good idea." Ignitus said. "I think she'll be delighted with it. It hasn't exactly been easy for her." Spyro nodded._

"…_especially with Volteer running around, mentioning to everyone about my efforts in stopping the Dark Master." Spyro sighed. "But, the fact that he includes her in the story makes it almost impossible for her to leave the temple. Especially when he mentions the part that he thinks there's still some dark enchantment looming over her. But I can't FEEL it. When she was evil, I could feel the dark magic controlling her, but now, nothing. How could she still have some enchantment on her when we clearly erased all of the Dark Master's control over her?" Ignitus shook his head._

"_Spyro, those other dragon's would need to be around Volteer as long as we have to know he just __**loves**__ talking; even if it means fudging the truth." Spyro chuckled at this comment; he knew it was true. How could he not, with Sparx constantly reminding him? Spyro quickly went back to fidgeting with something. He frowned slightly._

"_Still, any time I want to be with her, other dragons stop me. It's really annoying. All I want is just a little time with her. I feel so bad, she doesn't really have anyone in this world…" Ignitus chuckled._

"_That's funny, because I happen know a little dragon who entered my world with nothing but a sarcastic side kick." Ignitus said, leaning his head in Spyro's direction. Spyro blushed slightly._

"_Well… it's just… whenever I'm around her… I feel, sort of, different. I can't describe it, but it's… GAH! Just talking about makes me feel all… I just feel that she's the only person other than Sparx, that I've ever felt so close to; someone that I can relate to." Spyro stands up. "There, finished. I'll just keep it somewhere safe until tomorrow." He smiled and charges out the door of the temple. Ignitus turned around, watching him, and chuckled._

"_It seems like young Spyro's in love. I'm quite interested by this…" He turned around and strolled further into the temple._

We're back on the roof of the castle. The shadowy figure is trotting toward the window, his hand glows red, and everything goes black again.

_CELESTIAL TEMPLE, 150 YEARS AGO_

_We open in a circular room, with a pool in the center of it. Spyro is slowly walking toward the pool, his head drooped in agony. He stops and stares at the pool, as a voice begins ringing out through the room._

"_That was quite a battle you fought young one. I had thought you were surely doomed for a second." Spyro's eyes narrowed in anger._

"_It doesn't matter. What point is there anymore? She's gone." The voice begins speaking again._

"_You really cared about her, didn't you?" Spyro sighed._

"_It's like I told Ignitus, she's the only dragon I've ever felt so close to… and now she's gone." Spyro's face quickly turned to a glare again. "Who did it?" He growled._

"…_did what?" The voice responded._

"_WHO KILLED HER?!" He yelled, slamming his fist on the ground. Then he heard it; faint at first, but it slowly got louder._

"_Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!" The laugh continuously rings out through the room. Spyro, frightened, backed into a corner. Suddenly, a beam of energy rained out of the sky and slammed into him. He screamed and the laugh began again. Several seconds past before Ignitus runs into the room, and sees Spyro, badly wounded from the blast. The laugh rang out again, this time followed by some speaking. "None shall escape the Dark Lord! I will have my revenge! The dragon has outplayed me for the last time!" Ignitus runs out of the room. Several seconds pass, before Severus descends into the room. His flesh form is the same as his nightmare form, except his body and clothing are a mix of blood red and orange. _

"_That dragon is being nothing but a thorn in my side. But I will kill him one way or another."_

A scream is heard from the window the shadowy figure is perched over. He smiles and jumps down onto the window. A light snaps on. "W-why did you do that?" asked a female voice. A male voice responded.

"I thought you'd want to know what he'd truly thought. Maybe you'd like to reconsider telling him the truth." There's a small sob heard, then the female's voice speaks again.

"He… really does feel that way?"

"The feeling snapped back into him as soon as he saw you." The male voice responded. "Anyway," it began, "Think hard about what I've said, you're about to see him quite soon. This is the chance you've been waiting for; since you and I first met. You can free yourself. The power that is rightfully yours can be given, if you make the right choice; just follow your heart." With that, there's a white flash, and the shadowy figure flies out the window. The light turns off and everything goes black.

_ICE CAVERN, 3 DAYS AGO_

_"'You know how out of control you get...' SHUT IT! I have a right to be ANGRY!" At this, Flame pulled his head back, then lurched forward and released a jet of crimson flames flying at Spyro. But Spyro was quick on his feet, and glided to the side._

_"STOP! You're going to melt the..." Spyro tried to yell, but it was too late. There was a loud crash and the large, icy wall next to Flame exploded, sending fragments of ice everywhere. One particularly large, dagger-like piece began to fly toward Flame. "WATCH OUT!" Spyro yelled as he lunged at Flame, knocking him away from the icicle. Unfortunately, Spyro's momentum died down, and the icicle stabbed him in his right leg. Spyro yelped as he felt a warm, watery substance slide down his leg, but freezes quickly._

_"Spyro!" Ember gasped and ran over to him. "That shard is in there really deep! Why would you do something so STUPID?"_

_Spyro glanced at the shard, and the blood frozen on his leg, "Because Flame's my friend. And friends help each other, no matter what the cost. Don't worry... it'll be fine." Spyro grabbed the shard with one of his front paws, digging his claws in the ice and pulled hard. The bloody shard was pulled free of his body, and Spyro winced in pain._

As we return to the view of the window, Spyro's voice echoes out through the room. _Friends help each other, no matter what the cost. _It echoes about two or three times, then only part of it is spoken; _no matter what the cost_.

The female's voice echoes through the room next. _He's more than a friend… he's all I've got. Him… and Severus, but how can I save Spyro and my Dad?_

END CHAPTER 19!

**OH MY GOD! If you can put 2 and 2 together, then you realize what I've just told you! What will happen next? And when will see Spyro? FIND OUT!**

Next time, Chapter 20-Destruction in Motion


	21. Destruction in Motion

**Author's Note: I think this is my longest chapter yet. Almost 3,600 words!**

**Chapter 20-Destruction in Motion**

PEACH'S CASTLE 0730 HOURS

Everyone was gathered in front of the main entrance. Bowser was staring at Bob's radar. "So, according to this, the next dark gem, is on Yoshi's Island?" Epsilon nodded.

"Yes; apparently Gate is making weapons there."

"I don't get it," Zero began, "Nightmares are technically holograms. With that in mind, how would they be able to hold weapons?"

"Maybe the lava from the volcano has something to do with it?" Flame chimed in. Peach walked in and interrupted them.

"Whatever the case may be, you guys should get going before Gate has a chance to make these weapons." They nod and begin walking out the door. As they open it, a tall human runs into Cynder, knocking her over.

"Oh… oh my. Terribly sorry about that. AH! You're the group that out dark gem hunting? Good… very good! I'm Christopher Nitros! Dr. Nitros to you!" The man was tall, with white, shaggy hair. He had on an oversized lab coat, blue jeans, a blue t-shirt and black boots. He was wearing glasses that were on him slightly cockeyed. He extended his hand out. Bowser hesitantly shook it.

"What did you want to see us about, doc?" Epsilon grunted. Dr. Nitros straightened himself, pushing his glasses back up to eye level.

"I was scanning Yoshi's Island this morning when my radar picked up signs of VALUABLE TREASURE inside the same volcano as your dark gem. I was hoping you'd be able to find it and bring it to me. I'm eager to study it."

"Where on Yoshi's Island is it?" Luigi asked. Dr. Nitros's glasses flashed white, the sunlight hitting off them.

"It's in Mt. Lavalava. The same place the dark gem is." Shadow bolted upright.

"That's it! Gate's not just there making weapons… he wants that treasure!" Ember stared at him, confused.

"But how would he know there was treasure there?" Zero piped in.

"It must have been Severus. Vic told me he can naturally detect rare, valuable, and powerful gems." Epsilon grunted, clearly displeased.

"Powerful gems? I'm willing to bet an arm and a leg that 'treasure' is a Chaos Emerald. Sorry doc, but I'd kind of like to have a Chaos Emerald on me. When we find it, I'm gonna be keeping it." Dr. Nitros frowned.

"Darn and I was hoping it was some new, undiscovered gem. I've studied Chaos Emeralds plenty of times. Well, good luck. Don't let Gate find that treasure!" Epsilon nodded before floating off toward Toad Town. Doopliss pulls out his DS and starts walking, Cynder and Bowser following him. The scene cuts to behind a castle. Four heads that were peering around the castle turn back around.

"So there's treasure on Yoshi's Island? Well I wanna piece of that there pie, see!" One of them said. "Rookies! Pack up… Popple's back in business!" Popple grinned. Standing next to him was a blue dinosaur in sunglasses and a spiked dog collar, a plump man in yellow and purple overalls with a point mustache, and a tall, lanky man in purple and black overalls.

"For the last time…" the dinosaur began, "we're not your rookies! Why can't you get that through your thick skull? We have names!" Popple got angry.

"I KNOW! You're Boshi, the 'Burger King' is Wario, and the one who looks like he should be playing basketball is… um…. Er…. Moe?" The tall one got angry.

"For the 23rd time, it's WALUIGI! WALUIGI! Say it with me… W-A-L-U-I-G-I!" Popple stared at him.

"Could you repeat that, Moe? I didn't quite catch it." Waluigi falls down, anime style. Popple turns to begin walking when something swoops out of the sky and lands in front of him. It's followed by 5 other flying creatures. They appear to be dragons.

"Treasure… on an island? YES! This is my chance to score big!" Zane yelled, pumping his fist in the air. Alicia cleared her throat. "I mean OUR chance to score big!" Zane said, a sweat drop rolling down the back of his head.

"HEY! No one eavesdrops on Popple, the great Shadow Thief!" Zane laughs.

"Yeah, like I'm really scared of a BEAN! Give me a break!" And with that Zane unleashes a jet of red hot flames from his mouth. Popple is burnt to a crisp.

"That's not fair, see! We heard about it first!" At this point, Thorn, clearly becoming impatient, clears his throat.

"Why don't we just work TOGETHER?! We can split the profits 50-50!" Zane shook his head.

"I don't settle for anything less that 70-30!" Popple growled.

"No way! 60-40 in my favor!" Zane growled, moving his head closer to Popple's.

"How about 50-50, or I'm having roast bean for dinner tonight!" Popple nodded.

"Now that's a deal, see!" Thorn falls down, anime style. Alicia begins speaking to Boshi.

"So where's the treasure?" She asked.

"On Yoshi's Island. I AM a Yoshi, so I know that place like the back of my hand… HEY! When did that freckle get there?! Oh, wait, that's a piece of dirt." Alicia smacks her forehead. She grabs Boshi using her legs and flies into the air.

"Let's just go already!" She screams. Zane nods and grabs Popple, Thorn grabs Waluigi. Alix grabs Wario, but struggles to get in the air.

"Oof! How much weight are you packing? I haven't carried anything this heavy since that rat, Spyro, jumped on me!"

YOSHI VILLAGE, YOSHI'S ISLAND 1100 HOURS

A boat pulls into a large dock. Cynder jumps off the boat first, then everyone else. Ember turns back to the ship. "Thanks for the ride!" The boat turns around and sails back toward the mainland. Bowser takes a deep breath.

"Ah! Smell that fresh, tropical air! I haven't taken a vacation in _awhile_. I think this is the perfect time…" Shadow's hand reaches from off screen and grabs his shell.

"Not today, King Lazy, we've got an emerald to find and a dark gem to break!" He pulls Bowser off screen. Our shot cuts to everyone walking through the village on the island. Flame looks around.

"So, does anyone know which way it is to Mt. Lavalava?" Epsilon sighs.

"Well that obvious, if the sea is only 100 yards that way (he motions to the beach right next to them), then we obviously want to go to the other side of the island (he motions to the jungle to his right). Anyone who actually had an attention span longer than 30 seconds could've figured that out."

"HEY! Is that supposed to be some kind of insult?!" There's a brief pause. "Wait… what were we talking about again?" Ember falls down, anime style. Epsilon and Shadow fold their arms.

"How clichéd." They say simultaneously. "HEY!" they both yell, "THAT'S MY LINE!" White Mage turns and speaks to Cynder.

"We should go speak to Chief Yoshi, maybe he'll help us." She starts walking toward a house slightly larges than the other ones.

CHIEF YOSHI'S HOUSE 1105 HOURS

"Ah! White Mage! Luigi! Doopliss! It's good to see you again, my friends! What brings you to our island?" Chief Yoshi turns and notices Cynder, Ember and Flame. "Oh my!" He begins, "so these are the dragons that everyone's been talking about!" Flame and Ember exchange confused looks. Chief Yoshi chuckles. "Lately, people have been coming to the island talking about the fact that there are 12 dragons that have showed up here. 3 nice ones, 7 nasty ones, and one that whenever someone mentioned him, several people fainted." Cynder's head droops in sadness at that last bit, we can see her mouth "Spyro" to the floor. Chief Yoshi chuckles.

"It's all so strange. At the same time you guys appear, Jonathan Scrimegour is reported dead, there are reports of a man running around who looks like Godot, Bowser's castle is blown up…"

"…um, hello! I'm right here, and I can hear everything you're saying!" Bowser says, impatiently. Chief Yoshi chuckles.

"And strangest of all, a dinosaur robot appeared, requesting to take lava from our volcano. Naturally, reducing the risk of an eruption is helpful when attracting tourists, so I happily obliged." Zero shoves Flame aside and walks up to Chief Yoshi.

"This robot, was there anyone else with him?" Chief Yoshi pauses, thinking, then responds.

"Yes. There was a red dragon with him. I believe the dragon was calling him Dragoon…" Zero sighed.

"I knew it, Magma Dragoon. Apparently, Gate is rebuilding some of Sigma's old Mavericks, not just his own." Ember looks up at Zero, worried.

"Is that bad?" She asked, her voice hinting a small bit of fear. Zero thought for a second, then slowly nodded. Ember gasped slightly, a few other looking nervous as well.

"Unlike other Mavericks, Dragoon gets stronger every time he's repaired! It's gonna be hard to beat him this time. But I think with you guys helping, he won't be too hard." Chief Yoshi chuckled.

"I'll lead you to Mt. Lavalava. It's been pretty boring sitting around my house, I'd like to see this for myself." And with that, he stands up and walks out the door. White Mage sighs.

"What have we gotten ourselves into?" She said as everyone files out the front door.

MT. LAVALAVA BASE 1330 HOURS

We open in a small area hidden by bushes. They're all seated in a circle. Bowser is rubbing his feet. "Man, I swear all this walking is so NOT worth my castle!" White Mage nods her head.

"I know… all this walking and I don't even get donuts when it's over!" She says, folding her arms. Chief Yoshi clears his throat.

"I see him. He's set up a conveyer belt just outside Mt. Lavalava." He points to a long funnel tube. "He must be sucking up lava with that. And then he's sifting contents out of it!" Chief Yoshi motions to an oversized, stainless steel sifter.

"That must be how he's trying to find the Chaos Emerald." Shadow grumbled. Zero kneels in front of everyone and begins speaking to them.

"Listen, I know you think 10-on-1 is good for us, but trust me, it's nothing but bad news. Dragoon loves to use attack that hit at 360°. When you use less people, it's harder for him; especially 2-on-1. So who wants to fight him with me?" Epsilon pulls out his sword. It flashes white and when the light dies down, it's transformed into an energy saber like Zero's, but black instead of purple. Zero smiles. "Alright, we totally got the upper hand on this one!" Zero and Epsilon charge out of the bushes.

The scene cuts to Magma Dragoon, a red dinosaur-like robot. He's standing next to the oversized sifter. It finishes sifting through some lava. Dragoon swears. "Damn! Still no emerald! I've been at this for 4 days! When's Gate gonna get some common sense and bring me back?"

"Well, well, well… if it isn't Magma Dragoon. Long time no see, pal!" Dragoon swears again, this time much louder.

"Zero! The years have done nothing to you! Too bad I will. You may have beaten that weakling, Yammark, but you'll have a much more difficult time with ME! En garde!" Dragoon suddenly transforms into a swirling snake of flames. It flies toward Zero, who double jumps the attack and mid-air dashes to safely land behind Dragoon, who quickly coils into a ball and spins at Epsilon. Epsilon extends one hand forward and shoots out a jet of water. The flames instantly die down, but Dragoon responds by extending his foot out to kick Epsilon. He only succeeds in kicking the rock behind him, as Epsilon vanished. He reappears above Dragoon and elbows him in the head. Dragoon lands on his feet and pushes off, uppercutting Epsilon, who flies into the wall of the volcano. Zero sees the opening and leaps at Dragoon, who smiles and extends his head forward, releasing a steady stream of flames, knocking Zero to the ground. Epsilon quietly teleports, reappearing behind Dragoon. He slams his saber into Dragoon, knocking him into the ground.

"Well played." Dragoon said. Epsilon grunts, then dives at Dragoon. Dragoon shoots a pair of fireballs at Epsilon. He easily dodges them, but flies straight into a third one, which Dragoon shot at the last minute. He backs away from his attacker as Zero dashes towards him. Dragoon jumps over him, while releasing a stream of flames from his mouth. Zero dashes toward a rock and launches in the air, dodging the attack. He skillfully uses the volcano wall to propel him back at the startled Dragoon and uses the Hisuisho ability, surrounding him with an ice barrier, and slams into Dragoon. Dragoon plummets to the ground, landing on his head. A powerful, sizzling noise is heard, followed by something that sounds like a gunshot. Zero lands on the ground and runs over to Epsilon, who's knelt next to Dragoon.

"So, why didn't Dragoon explode? He's weak to ice and water!" Epsilon quickly tapped Dragoon's head, and scratches his chin. He takes out Bob and scans Dragoon. He nods, satisfied. "Well?" Zero asked.

"He's suffered a programming malfunction. The shock to the head must've eradicated Gate's destructive programming." Epsilon quickly backs away as Dragoon stirs. "What happens next?" Epsilon said. Zero smiled.

"Dragoon was once a hunter, before Sigma corrupted him. Now that that programming is gone, maybe Dragoon will join up with us!" Dragoon stands up, and stares at Zero. He runs over to him; Epsilon crouching low, ready to pounce. But Dragoon merely pats him on the back.

"Zero! How ya' been, buddy? Boy, the years have not been kind on you! Speaking of years, just how LONG was I under Sigma's control?" Zero shrugged.

"Beats me. It's good to have you back though! Here comes the rest of the team!" Zero motions to the other good guys, and Chief Yoshi, who are running toward them. Zero quickly explains the mission they're all on. Dragoon nods.

"Sounds great! I haven't had some action in years, anyway!" The first to reach them is Cynder, who suddenly tries to pounce on Dragoon, but Epsilon blocks her.

"No need." He begins, "his destructive programming was wiped. He's on our side now." Doopliss eyes Epsilon suspiciously.

"How do we know you're not lying, slick?" Epsilon held up Bob.

"I scanned him with Bob. And I can naturally sense problems and malfunctions present in other creatures. He's good, there's NO denying it (A/N: There really isn't. Dragoon REALLY is good now)." Ember smiled.

"That's awesome! Now to get the emerald and destroy the…" At that moment, a shadow ball strikes Ember in the back. Shadow groans.

"Why… why can't it be EASY for once?" He asks. A voice rings out through the island.

"Tsk tsk, Dragoon, what a shame you so abruptly left us. Although I don't think you'll be able to make up for your sins in your brief time left before the scrap heap!" No one needs to guess who made the remark as a 6 feet, purple and black dragon descends in front of the entrance to the volcano. The good guys all stare at him, confused.

"Who are you?" Bowser asks, clearly the most confused. Cynder gasps and gives a small cry. Ember turns to her.

"What is it? Do you see something? Tell us!" A tear trickles out of her left eye.

"Guys… that's… Spyro." Everyone else gasps at the statement.

"B-b-but that can't be him! How could he have gotten so big?! And his underbelly isn't red!" Flame responded. Spyro laughed.

"You guys really are dumber than you look. I'm getting more powerful every second! And your chances of beating me went down the drain long ago! My brother just merely delayed the inconceivable. It's time for you to all go to that lovely place in sky! And I've got some friends of mine to help me this time!" Spyro snaps his finger. Three figure jump down from the top of the volcano. One is a human dressed in red and blue overalls. The second is a blue hedgehog. The last one is a blue robot. All three have blood red eyes.

"Mario!" Luigi cried out.

"Sonic!" Shadow growled.

"Megaman. So that's X's older brother. How primitive." Zero chuckled. Megaman laughed.

"Ha! What are you supposed to be? Goth man? You sure look it with that black armor! Damn, I almost mistook you for High Max! But then I realized how inferior to him you were." Zero frowned at this. Spyro laughed.

"Now you all are in for it…" Spyro turned toward Cynder and Epsilon. "ESPECIALLY YOU TWO!" He yelled, his voice growing deeper with his increasing anger. Cynder was quivering in fear.

_Should I tell him now? NO! He's not mad enough! Tray told me his temper has to be past the breaking point!_ Cynder though. Spyro was charging up an attack, when a certain arrogant voice let out a loud laugh. This was followed by six figures swooping out of the sky. Pikachu punches a rock in frustration.

"What the hell?! Of all the possible times… why now? WHY?!" A small vein appeared on Shadow's forehead as Zane and his crew landed. Spyro's eyes met Zane's. They both gasped.

"YOU!" They said to each other. Spyro laughed. "HA! Give me a break! If you couldn't beat me in school, what makes you think you can beat me now that I have the gift of evil?!" Zane laughed.

"All these years I've been waiting for this moment, and I've been practicing!" Suddenly, Popple walked out from behind Zane. Bowser grunted, and Shadow's vein grew larger, his face turning red.

"POPPLE?!" Popple laughed.

"That's right, see! I heard there was treasure on this island, and I'm out to get it! ROOKIES! Get your butts out here!" Bowser and Luigi's eyes went wider as Boshi, Wario and Waluigi stepped out from behind Thorn. Shadow begins hitting his head against a rock, Manfred von Karma style.

"Why (head bang)… are we cursed (head band)… with such horrible (head bang)… luck (harder head bang, he breaks the rock)?" Spyro's eyes narrowed.

"So it seems we're all after the same prize. This'll only make things more enjoyable!" Spyro got ready to launch an attack at Bowser, when a laugh rings out through the arena.

"GOD DAMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Shadow yells. He grabs Ember and begins strangling her.

"cough What the gack hell are you doing?" All the fighters look up, as Guy descends into the last corner of the open field. He laughs.

"Wow! What a party you've all got going here! I can't believe you didn't invite me! After all, the guys back home in prison say I'm the LIFE of the party! Look," Guy said as he took out a beaker with a clear substance in it, "I even brought drinks!" Cynder and Luigi gasped.

"His secret weapon!" Luigi screamed out.

"I beg your pardon?" Doopliss asks.

"When Guy knocked you all unconscious in our first fight against him, he drank that SAME colored potion and turned into a monster!" Guy laughs as he drains the contents into his mouth. Instantly, his bionic hands, feet, and armor appear. In another flash, his staff appears. He gets in a fighting stance.

"No mercy this time. You shall all feel the wrath of Guy, assassin and mercenary extraordinaire!" Zane and his crew all get into stances.

"HA! You just got lucky next time! I hope you brought mops, cause we're wiping the floor with you!" Popple and his rookies all get into stances.

"Don' blink! Or you'll miss the part where I steal your 'easy victories!'" Spyro and his minions get into stances.

"Pathetic. All of you. Get ready for the great beyond!" The good guys all get into stances.

"The only things we'll be seeing are your beaten bodies littering this field!" Bowser cried out. "KOOPA POWER!" There's a record scratch. Shadow breaks his stance and turns to Bowser.

"Um… how should I put this…? NO!" He turns and gets back into his stance.

END CHAPTER 20!

**Get ready for a four way battle chapter!**

Next time, Chapter 21- Secrets and Bruises


	22. Secrets and Bruises

**Author's Note: This is BY FAR the longest chapter so far! Before we start, here are a couple of warnings.**

**There will be some mildly bad language. Nothing too outrageous, though.**

**This is a major violence warning. There'll be plenty of violence.**

**Romance warning. EXTREME ROMANCE WARMING. The amount of romance in this chapter took up about 6 or 7 pages on Microsoft Word. I'm not overdoing it, this is a BIG chapter!**

**Chapter 21- Secrets and Bruises**

The field was silent. No one moved. The only sounds heard could be the nervous breathing clearly busting out of Cynder's mouth, and the whisper of a cool sea breeze. If you had asked anyone who'd fought in this battle, they'd have said they felt this moment to be longer than any other thing in the battle. Finally, the silence broke. Spyro lunged out of the sky at incredible speed and tackles Cynder to the ground. Like a snake, he coiled his head around to meet Cynder's trembling body. "What's the matter, scared? You have every right to be, considering I'm going to deal with you _personally_." That last word, froze her every vein, an icy cold threat chilling her every bone. She screamed for help, and Epsilon, though startled, launched a shadow ball. Spyro smiles and grabs Cynder, his now-enlarged talons puncturing her shoulders. He thrusts Cynder in the air, and she's hit by Epsilon's shadow ball. Spyro tosses her into Flame, who ducks the attack and delivers a sweeping kick to the charging Zane.

"HEY! STOP PAYING ATTENTION TO YOUR GIRLFRIED AND FOCUS ON ME!" Zane yelled, launching a sweeping blast of flames at Spyro. Spyro retaliates with an overwhelming amount of blue flames from his mouth, easily striking Zane, who yells as he's thoroughly roasted. Meanwhile Sonic charges at Shadow, who merely vanishes and reappears behind him, elbowing him in the back. Shadow turns on his rocket skates and chases after Sonic, who spin dashes through the startled Popple and Wario. Wario flies into Luigi, who Luigi missiles him, Luigi then starts running as Mario chases after him with a hammer. Bowser jumps in front of Luigi.

"Hey, I just realized… we're fighting on the opposite sides! YES! This is my chance to win!" Bowser grabs Mario and Final Slams him, thoroughly flattening him. Bowser then leaps in the air and lands on him, shell first. Bowser is quickly knocked aside by a charged black from Megaman's buster. He slides up to Ember and powerfully kicks the top of her head. She roars and slashes him back, but his armor harmlessly deflects the attack. He retaliates by uses Flame Sword on her. But the attack is quickly defected by Zero's saber.

"Let's dance, blue boy!" Zero said as he began a combo of elegant slashes too fast for Megaman to deflect. Zero knocks him up in the air, where Waluigi throws a Bomb-Omb. A small explosion occurs, knocking Megaman toward Thorn who uses some earth breath on him. Thorn is quickly stabbed in the back by Spyro's tail. Thorn turns around to slash Spyro, but hits only air. Spyro, now in front of him, releases a jet of earth breath from his mouth, knocking Thorn high in the air. Guy slams one of his bionic hands, glowing with energy, into Thorn. He collides into the ground at amazing speeds. Epsilon suddenly appears in back of Guy, and delivers an Electric Spin attack to him, knocking him towards Cynder, who Comet Dashes into him. The two volley Guy back and forth like a tennis ball, until Spyro swoops between them, knocks Guy out of the way, and shoots three shadow balls at Cynder. Epsilon flies at him and puts him in a choke hold. The two plummet to the ground, making a giant crater. Epsilon kicks Spyro off of him with his legs, then waves his hand. Three blasts of lightning fly in from around Epsilon. He quickly puts up a Sapphire Barrier, deflecting the attacks in random directions. One accidentally hits Shadow, who trips and collides with the running Sonic. The two begin rolling in a ball, bowling over Popple, Pikachu and Alix. Eliza uses her ice breath to freeze the ball, then slams it with her tail toward Pikachu. Pikachu uses Pika Missile to knock the ice ball at Popple who flip kicks it. The ball flies into the air. Where Mario, who's spinning around like a top, hammer outstretched, knocks the ball into a tree. Dragoon, surrounded by his Fire Snake again, swivels into the air. He burns through Mario, knocking him into Luigi.

"HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Luigi yells as he uppercuts Mario, knocking him toward Wario who uses his trademark move, "the Wario", by shoulder-ramming him. While in the air, Ember kicks Wario in the butt, knocking him higher up, to where Flame and Frieze are exchanging blasts of fire and ice breath. Wario gets caught in the middle of them. There's a giant midair explosion and the three fighters all plummet to the ground, creating craters on impact. Boshi stampedes over Flame, running away from Sonic and Shadow's ball, which has sucked up White Mage, Bowser, Luigi, Zane, and Alicia. Flame notices this and jumps on top of the ball. He slams his fists into it and the ball breaks apart, scattering the fighters everywhere. White Mage throws her mallet at Alicia, then magically calls it back to her, and casts Holy on Alicia. Alicia, clearly in pain, charges White Mage, but White Mage puts up a Bubble Shield, deflecting the attack. The shield poofs away after the attack. White Mage throws her mallet at her again. Meanwhile, Zero and Megaman are exchanging blasts from their busters. Then Guy swoops in and blasts them with streams of energy from his bionic hands. He waves his staff around the charging Ember freezes in place. He thrusts the staff forward, and the spot she's standing in explodes, knocking her into the air. Alix takes the time to zap her with a steady stream of electricity, that is, until she's rammed by Cynder, who's flying away from a blast of lightning fired by Spyro. She roars in agony. The jungle rumbles at the sound of this, several hundred birds leaving their trees and flying into the sky.

Spyro turns his attention to Doopliss, who just copied him and starts shooting shadow balls at him. Spyro responds with own and the two consistently fire back and forth for several seconds. They are then both struck by a Thunder attack from Pikachu. Doopliss reverts to normal. "What was that for, slick?" Pikachu shrugged.

"I couldn't tell which one was the REAL Spyro!" Pikachu yells as he rolls to the side to dodge the incoming Sonic. Epsilon slams down on him from above. He's quickly kicked by Zane, who's blasted aside by Spyro, who's blown up into the air by Shadow, who's kicked across the screen by Alicia, who's uppercutted by Ember, who's flip kicked by Popple, who's roasted by Bowser, who's accidentally roasted by Dragoon, who's swift kicked by Guy. Guy quickly flies up to dodge the incoming Flame and stabs his with his staff, knocking him to the ground. Guy is quickly smacked in the back by a slash from Epsilon's sword, which has now transformed into an energy mace. Epsilon slams the mace on the ground, a shockwave of energy rippling out and knocking into every fighter. White Mage mallet vaults to save herself from the fall, and knocks into Alix. Alix responds with some lightning breath, knocking White Mage away from her. Alix is suddenly punched from behind by Ember. The two of them unleash devastating breath attacks. A huge explosion appears in midair, knocking the two of them to the ground. Ember gets up, panting, her body covered in several bad bruises and burns.

"This is too much! I can't keep this up forever!" She cries. She screams and jumps out of the way, as Cynder flies past her, Spyro pursuing her. Spyro grabs her tail and bites it. Cynder's scream is lost in the air he slams her into ground, then begins spinning her around incredibly fast. He releases her and she flies into a rock, slumping onto the ground. She's knocked out of the way of the incoming Spyro by Mario, who was chucked at Cynder by Bowser, who leaps in the air and Bowser Bombs Spyro and Mario.

"Oh yeah! Who's bad? I'm bad!" Bowser is quickly blasted out of the spot by a combined attack from Waluigi, Frieze and Megaman. Megaman quickly rolls aside to dodge Zero who uses the Mikazukizan ability on Megaman, who rolls into a Blaze Kick attack by Dragoon. Dragoon ducks under the incoming Alicia and grabs her tail. He pulls her back to eye level and unleashes a blast of flames at her, then chucks her into a crater. Dragoon jumps off after Sonic, who's in hot pursuit of Shadow. Shadow quickly skids to a halt in front of the wall of the volcano.

"Chaos…" He began. Meanwhile, Epsilon had been cornered by Zane, Spyro, Frieze, Thorn and Popple.

"Shadow's not the only one with a few tricks!" Epsilon cried out. "Chaos…" All the fighters suddenly found themselves in the middle of the two groups.

"NO! DON'T!" Sonic yells, but his cries are in vain.

"BLAST!" They yell simultaneously. The entire field explodes, knocking everyone into the air. Two blazing fast blurs rise into the air. One slams into Spyro driving him into the ground of the now-burning plains. The other slams into Sonic, driving him into the ground. Frieze is the first to wake up and ferociously slashes Doopliss, but Doopliss dodges, and fires an energy beam from his leaf umbrella. Alicia is getting rapidly thundered by Pikachu and Luigi. Luigi then turns his attention to Waluigi who smacks Luigi with a tennis racket. Luigi responds by slamming Waluigi on the head with his hammer. The remaining fighters in the air plummet to the ground, making a super crater. Guy stands up and blasts the crater with a ball of electricity, creating another large explosion. Spyro, who flies up in the air to dodge the attack, sees Cynder's outline amidst all the smoke, he rushes at her, but is stopped when his back is brutally slashes by Epsilon, drawing a large amount of blood. Spyro growls and fires a blast of lightning at Epsilon from his hands. Epsilon dodges the attack, but is soon caught up with Thorn, who tackles him to the ground. Spyro turns and flies toward Cynder again, who punches Eliza out of the way. Spyro stabs her in the back with his tail, making an enormous puncture wound. He grabs Cynder and places his hand on her chest. She notices the tattoo exerting an immense amount of pressure. Spyro release his grip, a green aura around him. Before she has time to escape, Spyro releases his fury attack; more devastating than anything she's ever witnessed. Her screams are masked by the sound given off by the blast and she spirals downward, the force of her collision causing an explosion of dirt and grass. But Spyro's not down he dives at her and begins ferociously slashing at her, each slash creating cuts deeper and deeper. When that's done, his hands are now glowing blue. He smiles.

"HELL BLAAAAAAAAAAAST!" He roars as a stream of energy the size of a skyscraper discharges from his hands, not only hitting the target but creating an explosion so large, half the ground of the field is incinerated, leaving only the now reheated molten rock that originally formed Yoshi's Island. Cynder spirals toward the remaining and ground, landing with a thud. At the sight of the attack, all the fighters, even Guy, have turned toward Spyro, who's just floating above his "work." This silence continuous for several seconds, until a small, quivering hand appears on top of the crater. You'd have a hard time telling if Cynder was a red or a black dragon after Spyro's work. "What… the… HELL?!" Spyro yells diving at Cynder, and tackling her into the ground.

"How are you still alive after that attack? THAT'S NOT LOGICALLY POSSIBLE! I just blew up a quarter of this damn island, and something as small as you weren't completely incinerated by that attack?" He growls and slashes her across the face. But suddenly he stops, as he notices the tears streaming down her face. "Oh give me a break! Not the water works again!" Suddenly, a voice echoes out through the filed.

"What are you waiting for, Spyro? FINISH HER!" Everyone looks up as Gate descends next to Spyro, Nightmare Severus following him. Ember gasps.

"That's…" Zero swears.

"Gate! So it WAS you behind this all along." Gate laughs.

"Ha ha HA! Of course it was, imbecile, who else did you think it could be?" Severus smiles.

"And now my precious little masterpiece is about to destroy your friend once and for all! So take your last breaths of life, Cynder!" Cynder screams, as Spyro pins her down by the neck.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment. It's as I said before, my brother merely delayed the inconceivable! Any last words?" Cynder turned her tearful eyes toward Severus.

"D… D…. D…." Severus raised an eye in question.

"What? What are you looking at _me_ for, sea urchin?" Spyro was turning his confused head from Severus to Cynder and back again. Cynder opened her mouth again, her eyes unable to hold back any more tears. She suddenly grabs Spyro's hand, to utter shock, and slams it into him. She stands up, her face a confused mixture of anger and sadness.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? Can't you remember ANYTHING? Isn't there anything salvageable left from you? Or did Deblin completely wipe all traces of you when he destroyed your mortal form... _**DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!**_" Severus froze. Spyro froze. Everyone froze. Suddenly, laughing was heard, not from Severus, or Spyro… from Guy.

"Oh this is **RICH**! The Dark Lord has not one, but TWO CHILDREN! He didn't even realize the second one existed, because he didn't know his wife secretly had a second egg she gave to Tray! If they have an ignorant villain award, you certainly deserve it, Severus!" Severus did not speak; his usually jester-like smile was replaced with a face of pure shock. Suddenly, Cynder screamed, Spyro had pinned her down again.

"Y-Y-YOUR LYING! THAT'S NOT TRUE! I'M HIS ONLY CHILD! THIS… CAN'T…" Steam was rising from Spyro, but not any kind of normal steam, BLACK STEAM. "_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_" He roared, everyone stepped back as the roar was in some sort of double voice. The steam continued to rise into the air, a white light encasing Spyro. The steam stopped and gathered into a black ball of energy, which formed into the same shame as Spyro. The shape screamed as it was sucked back into the shocked Severus.

"What? That's i-impossible my spell… broken?!" Guy frowned.

_No… DAMMIT! Is that girl about to ruin everything I've worked for?!_ Guy thought. At that moment, a 100 feet tall silhouette of Tray appeared over Cynder and the still screaming Spyro.

"At last, after 150 years, all may be forgotten." With that, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck Cynder. Everyone gasped.

"What's happening to them?" Ember screamed, as she grabbed hold of Epsilon.

"I… don't… know…" It was then… that a magnificent rainbow of light poured out of Cynder and Spyro's heads. It formed a kind of screen. Like a projection screen.

"What in the...?" Bowser began. Suddenly, an image appeared on the screen. Through her pain and suffering, Cynder began to recognize it as the dreams she had had those two nights Tray had visited her. (A/N: Feel free to skip through the italicized part; it's just a recap of all of Cynder's dreams).

_DRAGON TEMPLE, 150 YEARS AGO_

_We're in the room with the dragon statue. Spyro is lying there, talking to Ignitus, his mentor, who's staring at him closely. Spyro seems occupied with something. "…I think it's a good idea." Ignitus said. "I think she'll be delighted with it. It hasn't exactly been easy for her." Spyro nodded._

"…_especially with Volteer running around, mentioning to everyone about my efforts in stopping the Dark Master." Spyro sighed. "But, the fact that he includes her in the story makes it almost impossible for her to leave the temple. Especially when he mentions the part that he thinks there's still some dark enchantment looming over her. But I can't FEEL it. When she was evil, I could feel the dark magic controlling her, but now, nothing. How could she still have some enchantment on her when we clearly erased all of the Dark Master's control over her?" Ignitus shook his head._

"_Spyro, those other dragon's would need to be around Volteer as long as we have to know he just __**loves**__ talking; even if it means fudging the truth." Spyro chuckled at this comment; he knew it was true. How could he not, with Sparx constantly reminding him? Spyro quickly went back to fidgeting with something. He frowned slightly._

"_Still, any time I want to be with her, other dragons stop me. It's really annoying. All I want is just a little time with her. I feel so bad; she doesn't really have anyone in this world…" Ignitus chuckled._

"_That's funny, because I happen know a little dragon who entered my world with nothing but a sarcastic side kick." Ignitus said, leaning his head in Spyro's direction. Spyro blushed slightly._

"_Well… it's just… whenever I'm around her… I feel, sort of, different. I can't describe it, but it's… GAH! Just talking about makes me feel all… I just feel that she's the only person other than Sparx, that I've ever felt so close to; someone that I can relate to." Spyro stands up. "There, finished. I'll just keep it somewhere safe until tomorrow." He smiled and charges out the door of the temple. Ignitus turned around, watching him, and chuckled._

"_It seems like young Spyro's in love. I'm quite interested by this…" He turned around and strolled further into the temple._

Ember stared at what was happening, horrified. _No._ She thought. _It really is true. He does love her… maybe it's time to face the facts. Especially if this is all true._

_Cynder was quietly sitting, staring at the large statue in front of her. She sighed, happily. She had been waiting for this moment for a long time. It was the first real birthday she'd be able to have. All the other ones were spent under the influence of the Dark Master; there had been no time for things such as this. Since Spyro had managed to defeat the Dark Master, a large group of dragons came here from another part of the world, seeking a place to live. It made things a lot less boring than they'd been before. She stood up and walked out one of the doors down the path to the balcony overlooking the large village. She saw several dragons already beginning stir. She looked up at the sun, which had now fully risen. _

_"Guess who!" A voice said from behind as Spyro jumped in front of Cynder, startling her slightly. _

_"You scared me! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Cynder said, before she and Spyro laughed at the comment. She stared as Spyro tried to think of something to say. His eyes lit up, as if remembering something._

_"Oh... I almost forgot... today's your birthday, isn't it?" Cynder nodded, a small smile beginning to brake out. Spyro pulled out a necklace. The necklace consisted of several shimmering diamonds that gleamed in the morning light. She looked at it, speechless. She slowly reached out and took it, then put it on. She blushed slightly._

_"Oh, Spyro... I... don't know what to say." She said. Spyro pawed at the ground. _

_"Oh... well... it was nothing, really! I just found them by the temple and thought..." But Spyro lost his train of thought as Cynder ran to him and hugged him, a few tears streaming down her face._

_"Thank you." She whispered. "This is... the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me." Spyro nodded, and the two of them turned to look at the necklace. _

"What… is this?" Pikachu asked. Flame looked at him, scared.

"I think its… their pasts." He said.

_We're in a cave. Two figures are standing in it, talking. We suddenly turn and see Cynder frozen in the ice wall. One of the figures is Severus. The other is a blood red dragoness, with long black horns and spikes down her back. The tip of her tail is a black, spiked mace. Severus laughs._

_"Ah ha ha ha ha. That pitiful Dark Master was the worst minion I've ever claimed. Not only did he fail in killing Spyro, he LOST to him." Severus's smile faded. "Of course, I can't completely issue blame. I'm stunned that Spyro's egg did not remain permanently frozen like the spell should have done. Some greater magic must have undone it." He shakes his head. "No matter, now it is your turn, Kira." He turns to the red dragoness._

_"You know all of that pitiful dragon's moves, and have been given the ability to cast basic Dark Magic. I won't tolerate failure anymore." Kira nodded._

_"As you wish, oh Dark Lord." She bowed and flew down toward the beach. Severus laughed._

_"Oh Spyro... your creation was my biggest mistake, and your sudden existence is but a constant reminder of the evils the master gem showed me." He laughed._

"WHAT?! How does she know this? This is impossible! ARGH!" Severus slammed his fist on the ground.

"Is that… Cynder? She's FROZEN! Just like we found her!" Flame commented. Ember gasped. Flame was right. It must have beenSeverus.

_CELESTIAL TEMPLE, 150 YEARS AGO_

_We open in a circular room, with a pool in the center of it. Spyro is slowly walking toward the pool, his head drooped in agony. He stops and stares at the pool, as a voice begins ringing out through the room._

"_That was quite a battle you fought young one. I had thought you were surely doomed for a second." Spyro's eyes narrowed in anger._

"_It doesn't matter. What point is there anymore? She's gone." The voice begins speaking again._

"_You really cared about her, didn't you?" Spyro sighed._

"_It's like I told Ignitus, she's the only dragon I've ever felt so close to… and now she's gone." Spyro's face quickly turned to a glare again. "Who did it?" He growled._

"…_did what?" The voice responded._

"_WHO KILLED HER?!" He yelled, slamming his fist on the ground. Then he heard it; faint at first, but it slowly got louder._

"_Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!" The laugh continuously rings out through the room. Spyro, frightened, backed into a corner. Suddenly, a beam of energy rained out of the sky and slammed into him. He screamed and the laugh began again. Several seconds past before Ignitus runs into the room, and sees Spyro, badly wounded from the blast. The laugh rang out again, this time followed by some speaking. "None shall escape the Dark Lord! I will have my revenge! The dragon has outplayed me for the last time!" Ignitus runs out of the room. Several seconds pass, before Severus descends into the room. His flesh form is the same as his nightmare form, except his body and clothing are a mix of blood red and orange. _

"_That dragon is being nothing but a thorn in my side. But I will kill him one way or another."_

"This… is… MADNESS!" Severus yelled. Ember suddenly noticed Guy's visor was exerting large amounts of steam.

"What's up with Guy?" Ember asked.

_ICE CAVERN, 3 DAYS AGO_

_"'You know how out of control you get...' SHUT IT! I have a right to be ANGRY!" At this, Flame pulled his head back, then lurched forward and released a jet of crimson flames flying at Spyro. But Spyro was quick on his feet, and glided to the side._

_"STOP! You're going to melt the..." Spyro tried to yell, but it was too late. There was a loud crash and the large, icy wall next to Flame exploded, sending fragments of ice everywhere. One particularly large, dagger-like piece began to fly toward Flame. "WATCH OUT!" Spyro yelled as he lunged at Flame, knocking him away from the icicle. Unfortunately, Spyro's momentum died down, and the icicle stabbed him in his right leg. Spyro yelped as he felt a warm, watery substance slide down his leg, but freezes quickly._

_"Spyro!" Ember gasped and ran over to him. "That shard is in there really deep! Why would you do something so STUPID?"_

_Spyro glanced at the shard, and the blood frozen on his leg, "Because Flame's my friend. And friends help each other, no matter what the cost. Don't worry... it'll be fine." Spyro grabbed the shard with one of his front paws, digging his claws in the ice and pulled hard. The bloody shard was pulled free of his body, and Spyro winced in pain._

"Hey! Th-that's us!" Flame said. But before anyone can say anything, Spyro's voice echoes out.

_Friends help each other, no matter what the cost._ The last word echoes out, everyone is giving each other confused looks. Suddenly, Cynder's voice rings out.

_He's more than a friend… he's all I've got. There's no place left to turn. I can't turn to father, he's gone, and a madman is here in his place. I must tell the truth. I can't hide it anymore. I don't care how much he hates me for it. He has to know… the truth. And the truth… is simple; the night after he'd beaten off the Dark Master, I had discovered Tray waiting for me in the woods. It was there, he had told me dark secrets. But one of them was bigger than all the others. I had to hide it from Spyro. He'd gone through so much in so little time; it'd crush his innocent and pure heart to tell him; so I hid the truth. I hid the terrifying truth that I am…__**his sister**_

Her voice echoed those last two words, over and over. Bowser's mouth was hanging so low, it almost touched the ground. The light on Guy's visor was now glowing much brighter than before. Finally, all the screaming and lights began to die down, the natural color being restored to the island. They all look in the crater. Ember gasps.

"He's… HE'S BACK TO NORMAL!" She screamed. All the color seemed to drain for Gate, Severus, and Guy's faces. Zane stomps his foot on the ground.

"DAMMIT! No treasure! Spyro's back to normal! This is the worst day that's ever happened to me!" He growled. But, no one else seems to care. They all walk up to the crater, heroes and villains alike, and peer over into the crater. Everyone exchanges nervous looks, and hold their breath. Finally, Cynder moans slightly, and stumbles to her feet.

"Wh-what happened?" But she soon answers her own question. As she stares down at her right paw. A tattoo of two swords crossing with a serpent weaving through them is glowing radiantly. She smiles, a single tear drop falling on the tattoo, then instantly rising into the air as steam. "Oh!" She turns around and charges over to Spyro, who's curled up in a ball on the ground. She lies down beside him and lowers he head next to his. "Are you… okay?" She whispers. Spyro's eyes snap open. He quickly gets to his feet, and turns around to face her. She looks up, and Spyro tackles her. The others all gasp, Gate smiles.

"Hmmm hmmm… it looks like all that effort was wasted… huh?" He quickly looked down at them, and saw Spyro, his face not filled with an evil grin, but instead… crying. Cynder looked up into his eyes.

"Please… forgive me." She said. Spyro brings his head closer down.

"Why?" He asked, his voice trembling with confusion and fear, "so you can keep holding secrets… and lying to me?" Cynder whimpered.

"You don't understand… I did it because I was afraid; afraid this would happen. And you were so happy 150 years ago; I couldn't bare it in my heart to surprise you with such startling news." Tears began to stream down her face as well. "The thing that hurts me harder than anything… is seeing you sad and disappointed." Spyro slashes her across the face.

"Well… look now! See? You've done what you didn't want to! Are you happy?" Ember suddenly yelled down.

"SPYRO! Snap out of it! This is _not_ like you at all!" Spyro lifted his head back up.

"Ember, not now! I'm having an important conversation!" He cried out. Flame sighed.

"Man… I have NEVER seen Spyro break down like this in my 13 years with him!" He commented. Bowser stomps his foot on the ground.

"GRAH! ENOUGH WITH THE LOVEY-DOVEY STUFF! The author's been doing it for 7 WHOLE PAGES ON MICROSOFT WORD!" White Mage smirks.

"You're just jealous you'll _never_ have a girlfriend, Bowser!" Bowser stomps his foot again.

"I am not! If the author could just see what a handsome hunk of Koopa I am… I'M KING BOWSER KOOPA! I'm grade A, 100 prime cut final boss material right here! I'm…" But before Bowser can finish, a giant brick wall with the number 4 painted on it flattens him into the ground. Luigi smiles and gives a thumbs up, and the shot goes to back below.

"Spyro… you have to believe me. If I really wanted to never tell you, you'd be standing next to him right now (she points to Gate and Severus), and I'd be dead right now!" Cynder said, her voice filled with concern for her brother.

"I know that… but… why didn't you tell me 150 years ago?" Cynder opened her eyes, meeting his again.

"Because," she began, turning her face away, "I had already hurt you so much. I had caused you so much trouble when Severus had me under his control. And then I tried to get myself involved in helping you stop Gaul, and it just lead to trouble. The same thing with the Dark Master. I felt, you had gone through so much, you deserved the chance to enjoy yourself." Spyro began to relax his grip, and Cynder slid out from under him, standing up. "Listen," she said, "We're even now. I caused you all that trouble 150 years ago, and you caused me all this trouble over the last 3 days." Spyro's muscles began to slowly relax, his angry face, began to form… a smile.

"I… guess… I owe you an apology." He said, his voice still trembling. He felt vulnerable, Cynder could tell. "I never… should have tackled you like that…"

"And I never should have kept this a secret from you. I'm sorry." Spyro smiles, and before he responds, grabs Cynder and hugs her. Ember and Flame look at each other and smile. Bowser's crippled hand flashes a thumbs up from under the wall. Epsilon smirks briefly. Spyro and Cynder jump out of the crater and fly up into the volcano. A smashing sound is heard. The two fly out again, Cynder gripping a gem in her right hand. She drops it into Epsilon's hands. Meanwhile, Guy's visor is smoking even more now. Severus is collapsed on the ground like a dead person, and Gate is paler in the face than a ghost. He quickly regains his composure.

"I've had enough setbacks. Severus! Forget him! We have more important matters to attend to. To the Honiversity!" Gate produces an evil smile as he and Severus are teleported out of the field. Zero sighs.

"Looks like this adventure isn't over…" He began. Guy meanwhile, was staring closely at Spyro. Suddenly, his frown begins to morph into an evil smile.

"…Not by a long shot." He mutters.

END CHAPTER 21!

**Yay! Spyro's back! Now it's time to go after Gate! Hopefully you're all not shaking as much as I was when I wrote this!**

Next time, Chapter 22- Taking it to the Man


	23. Sticking it to the Man

**Author's Note: For those who think we're getting close to the end… don't count on it. **

**Chapter 22- Sticking it to the Man**

1700 HOURS

We open viewing a moving bus. We cut to the inside, where the various good guys are all doing different things. Cynder and Bowser are yet again watching Doopliss play his DS. Epsilon and Pikachu are hanging out in one corner, and Flame, Ember and Spyro in another. "I mean… all those flashing lights and everything, it totally made my head hurt!" Pikachu said. Epsilon nodded.

"I must admit… even _I_ didn't see that coming. Quite surprising, considering I can always tell when things like this are happening." We pan over to Shadow and Zero, who are talking to Dr. Lelenthal, via Bob.

"…but why would Gate want to go to Woohoo Honiversity? I don't really think there's anything of importance there." Shadow said, folding his arms.

"There is one possible thing…" Dr. Lelenthal said, "Their world-famous astronomy tower and telescope. It's the most high tech tower not controlled by the M.R.U.N." Zero strokes his chin.

"Then you're implying there's something of importance to Gate, in outer space?" Dr. Lelenthal nodded. "Interesting." Zero said, trying to piece together this information, "I don't see Gate as the type of person to involve himself with outer space." Luigi walked over to Zero and sat down next to him, he had three coffee mugs in his hand.

"You guys want some hot chocolate? I made it myself!" He asked, happily pleased. Shadow yawned.

"How much further do we have to go?" Luigi looked at his watch.

"A good solid 3 hours till we reach the Mushroom-BeanBean border. Then another two hours to BeanBean Castle Town. Then we have to take a boat." Shadow yawns again.

"I think I could use a little shut eye. Hook me up with some of that hot chocolate!" Luigi tosses him one of the mugs. He takes a long sip and folds his arms behind his head, satisfied. "Ah! Just as good as always… now to get some shut eye." Shadow closes his eyes and quickly falls asleep. Zero turns off Bob and looks at Luigi.

"So, we're not gonna actually show up till dark?" Luigi sighs.

"Yeah, normally that would be bad, because Gate could use the telescope, but tonight it's okay!" Zero raised an eye in question. "Oh, you guys don't know, today was BeanBean Independence Day. They're gonna have a huge, 2 hour long fireworks show." Peach walked up to Luigi.

"And Queen Bean invited me, so I'll only be a 10 minute boat ride away if you're in trouble!" Satisfied, Zero turns back to a small table, where a game of solitaire is neatly lined up on it. Luigi goes back towards the back of the bus. We cut to Spyro, Ember, and Flame, who are merely talking to each other.

"We're really glad that you're safe." Ember said. Spyro sighed.

"I get it, okay. So you three were really determined to save me. It just felt so weird."

"What… being evil?" asked Flame.

"Well, yes, that too. But also, being the one who **gets** saved. I was so used to doing all the saving." Spyro answered, his voice showing slight amusement. Ember giggled and patted her friend on the back.

"Aw, don't worry about it, Spyro! Heck, if not for your bravery, us three would never have met!" Spyro raised an eye in question. "What… you forgot? Remember, it was the day you first breathed fire! And you were only one month old!" Spyro smiled.

"Oh yeah, I remember that! I don't know what was funnier, Zane, or all the elders' faces after I used my flame breath!" They all laughed. Spyro turned and looked at the other good guys. Dragoon and White Mage were reading a book of some kind, while Cynder was now whispering something in Doopliss's ear. Spyro sighed.

"What's wrong, buddy?" Flame asked.

"I just feel so, weird. I mean, all your other friends seem to be avoiding me, Cynder included." Ember shook her head.

"You two had a really rough afternoon. A lot happened. Heck, I'm surprised they aren't avoiding her like they are you; she almost gave me a heart attack!" She said. Luigi suddenly walked over to them, he had three coffee mugs in his hands.

"Hi Luigi!" Flame said. Luigi nodded.

"Hi Flame! You three want some hot chocolate? I made it myself!" Flame and Ember looked at Spyro.

"Don't worry Spyro. Luigi's a great cook! He's made all our meals while we've been in this dimension!" Ember said. Spyro nodded, and took one of the cups. Luigi smiled.

"You know, I don't think I introduced myself. I'm Luigi! I'm Mario's younger brother! You remember him, right?" Spyro shrugged.

"My memory of my time spent with Gate is sketchy, but I sort of remember him. Anyway, it's nice to meet you! Everyone else has kind of been avoiding me." He answered. Luigi just laughed and grabbed Spyro's paw.

"You just need to get the chance to meet them! Come one!" Spyro looked back at Flame and Ember. They nodded and he walked off with Luigi. They stop by Dragoon and White Mage first.

"Spyro, this is Magma Dragoon. He was one of Gate's minions too. And that's White Mage; she knows several healing spells and is really good with mallets." White Mage smiled at Spyro.

"Hi! You know, for some reason, your sister over there completely forgot to ask me to heal her after the battle. I think she'll remember once Doopliss turns off his DS. She's been hypnotized by that thing!" Spyro sighs and turns toward Dragoon.

"Oh, hi Dragoon. How'd they free you from Gate?" Dragoon picked his head up from the book.

"Epsilon mentioned something about brain damage." He said. Luigi grabbed Spyro and moved on to Zero and Shadow.

"That sleeping guy over there is Shadow. He's real serious about everything. And he can freeze time too, so don't get on his bad side!" Shadow turns to Zero, who's quickly moving various playing cards back and forth.

"That's Zero. He's a Maverick Hunter and the only guy here other than you now that's been involved with Gate." Zero looked up at them.

"Hey, Luigi! Hey, Spyro! I'm just playing this thinking game Epsilon taught me. He calls it solitaire. It's really tough though! This is my third game and I still haven't been able to win!" Luigi grabbed Spyro again. They walk up to Bowser, Doopliss and Cynder. Bowser looks up.

"Oh, hey Luigi! Hey, purple guy. Doopliss here just beat the Special Cup on 150cc Mirror Mode in Mario Kart! He's 4 championships away from unlocking R.O.B!" He said.

"Purple guy?!" Spyro said, startled.

"Don't worry, Bowser is not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. Before this adventure, he always called me Green 'Stache." Doopliss looks up. He pauses his DS and stands up, shaking Spyro's paw.

"Nice to meet 'ya, slick! Name's Doopliss, copycat extraordinaire!" Spyro laughs.

"I remember that! You copied me pretty well, until Pikachu zapped us both!" The two laughed, and Doopliss went straight back to his DS. As they walked toward Peach, Epsilon and Pikachu, Spyro glances at Cynder. Now that he's seeing her up close, without all the tears getting in the way, he sees the damage he did to her. He quickly turns his head away, as she mimics the action. Luigi turns back to Spyro.

"Spyro, this is Princess Peach, she's the ruler of our kingdom!" Peach bows.

"It's an honor to meet you." She said. Spyro looks at her, confused.

"An honor?! I haven't done anything _that_ amazing." Spyro said. Peach giggled and pointed to his tattoo.

"Silly dragon, that mark is bigger than any action you could possibly do. I mean all of us from this dimension have gotten to meet Tray and Vic. And your friends have met them as well." Spyro nodded and turned to Pikachu.

"And I know you. You hit me on the head with a rock after the battle. What was that for again?" Pikachu rolled his eyes.

"I was knocking the common sense back into you. You don't tackle, or mortally wound your own sister. By the look of things, I'd say my plan worked pretty well." Luigi falls down, anime style, then picks himself up and walks away. Spyro turns to Epsilon. Epsilon motions for Pikachu to leave for a minute. He nods and walks toward Doopliss.

"So you're… my little brother?" Spyro asked. Epsilon shook his head.

"I'm genetically altered. I'm technically supposed to be older than you. My mind was even filled with memories of the 11 years before my 'birthday.'" Spyro drooped his head.

"Yeah… listen I'm _really_ sorry about what had happened. I wasn't thinking when I'd tackled Zane like that." Epsilon shook his head; Spyro could briefly see that the back of his neck bore the same tattoo he and Cynder had. Epsilon then pulled the battle suit up so it blocked the tattoo from view.

"Don't grieve for me. What you should grieve for is how you treated Cynder once you were back to normal. You know why she's avoiding you, right?" Spyro shook his head. Epsilon sighed, "You scared her. Your behavior toward her was always much different than that. You'd never yelled at her, not even once, she's been caught off guard." Spyro looked up at him, slightly angry.

"But… she kept something of major importance hidden from me! And for such a long time too!" Epsilon turned to face Spyro, making eye contact. If you asked anyone, Epsilon rarely did that.

"She had the right too." He began, sipping some hot chocolate from a cup of his own, "Spyro, my thoughts are much more different than any other creatures'. I can use logic to piece together scientific inferences. And I was able to infer that if she'd told you 150 years ago, you wouldn't have been able to handle the truth. You'd have run away." Spyro looked at him, confused.

"What are you implying?" He asked. The bus suddenly came to a halt, inside a small castle.

"I'm implying," he began as he stood and walked toward the doors, "that it's time to make amends with her." Peach turned to Spyro.

"We're gonna stay here at the border for about 30 minutes, so we can refuel." Spyro nodded and walked out the door. He caught Cynder walking toward a fountain out the corner of his eye, and followed her. Ember noticed, and tried to stop him, but Epsilon put his hand in front of her.

"Don't, he's going to do the right thing." Epsilon said. Ember turned to him, nodded, and then walked off after Flame. We now cut to Spyro who's walking slowly up to Cynder. She notices, and quickly tries to leave, but Spyro grabs her leg.

"No… sit, and listen… please." She looks at him, then nods and sits down on the marble fountain. Spyro joins her. "Cynder…" he began, "I know, that you were frightened by my response to your actions today." Cynder nodded, staying silent. "But you have to know, what you said frightened me!" Spyro said, his voice filled with concern. Cynder looked back at him.

"Spyro…" she began, "I know how you feel. You're going through what happened to me after you freed me from the Dark Master's magic. It was… wrong of me to…" Spyro put his finger to Cynder's mouth.

"Don't. I'm apologizing… for real this time. Can you forgive me?" A sly smile appeared on Cynder's face as her eyes darted about the room. Before Spyro could say anything, he was gently pushed on the side by her long, coiling tail. "What the…? AH!" Spyro slipped and fell into the fountain with a big splash. And, even though he was submerged, he could hear it; Cynder laughing. He smiled to himself, as his head broke the surface of the water.

"Very funny, Cynder!" Spyro said, as he climbed out of the fountain, thoroughly soaked from head to tail. Cynder just smiled and Spyro couldn't help but return it with one of his own.

"I know! You were just there, and it just felt like the right moment." She responded, as Spyro rang out his tail. The two turned and walked back toward the bus. "Right now…" she began, "…let's just focus on beating Gate." Spyro nodded; drops of water jumping of his head as he did.

WOOHOO HONIVERSITY 1940 HOURS

In the pink and orange light of the sunset, Woohoo Honiversity loomed ahead of the heroes; a massive tower of brick. At the very top of the tower, the end of a telescope could be seen, as pointed out by Epsilon. The boat slowly sails up to the dock, and they all get out. The Toad Sailor turns to them.

"I'll stay here, if you need to get out of here quickly, just come back to this dock!" They nod and walk up the stairs and into the school, via the front doors. They walk into a large entry hall, decorated with green and pink tapestry. A marble staircase ascends the tower, as chandeliers give off a faint light. Luigi stroked his chin. "Boy, they've really redone the place! No more complicated puzzles, just a nice, friendly staircase to the top!" He suddenly hears groaning. He rolls his eyes in Bowser and White Mage's directions.

"Great," Bowser grumbled, "more walking. I swear I've lost at least 10 pounds with all this exercise! And a stud such as me doesn't need to lose all his muscle!" Spyro rolls his eyes, a small sweat drop rolling down the back of his head. Bowser turns to Epsilon. "You're the lucky one! You can just levitate! And yet, here I am, 500 pounds of pure muscle force to walk up an endless flight of stares…" As Bowser rants, the other began their climb up the school. Bowser notices them, "HEY! WAIT UP! GAH!" He runs after them. "Man…" Bowser said, panting, "I NEVER should have quite the track team!"

Bowser reaches the second floor of the tower, where the others are waiting. They all roll their eyes at him. "What… so I'm big! It's not like it's some sort of federal crime!" Spyro rolls his eyes again.

"But it doesn't help us at all. Doopliss can walk faster than you playing video games!" Bowser stomps his foot on the ground.

"Doesn't matter! We've got… 1 hour and 19 minutes until sundown! We have plenty of time!" Bowser looks up to the roof of the school and gulps. "Or… maybe not…" Epsilon floats next to Bowser.

"I've got a good idea." He said.

"What is it?" Bowser asks. Suddenly Epsilon grabs hold of Bowser and disappears, taking Bowser with him. Everyone stares at the spot they were just in.

"Where did they…?" Ember began to ask, but a voice from upstairs called down to them. Spyro recognized it as Epsilon's.

"Hurry up." They all looked at each other and continue walking up the stairs.

20 MINUTES AND 620 STAIRS LATER…

At last, they all arrive at the top of the last flight of stairs. A large metal door labeled "ASTRONOMY TOWER: AUTHORIZED ACCESS ONLY" looms in front of them. Bowser pumps his fist in the air. "Alright! It's time to get in their and beat Gate once and for all!"

"And what makes you think you'll be making it through that door, huh?" The all stop and look up. Severus slowly descends into the arena. Spyro tenses up, gritting his teeth and hunching over low to the ground. "Ah ha ha ha ha ha. This is it for you all. I have realized trying to defeat you all at once was a foolish mistake… so I shall pick you off the slow way. Starting…" Severus snaps his fingers. A giant, multicolored box traps all of the good guys except Spyro. "..With you." Spyro looks up at Severus.

"You've caused me enough trouble, and you know full well now that one of us has to go; and it won't be me. So, show me your power. Let's dance!" Severus winks and disappears. He reappears behind Spyro and slashes his with his hand, which is glowing with purple energy. Spyro flips onto his feet and shoots a blast of white flames from his mouth. Severus puts up his hand and a purple wall appears, deflecting the flames. "Ah ha ha ha ha. This is too easy!" Severus waves his hand and a shadow ball flies out. It instantly splits into two. Spyro jumps into the air, dodging the attack and flies at Severus. His tail glows green with energy as he slams his tail into Severus. He does it a second time, then a third. Finally he faces him and slams his arms and legs into him, while also releasing a stream of earth breath. Severus disappears again and reappears above Spyro. He charges up a beam of energy and releases it, but Spyro, much to his surprise, sticks his hands out and creates a blue barrier, reflecting the attack back at Severus. He teleports away, startled.

"That a boy, Spyro!" Flame yelled.

"Way to go, purple guy!" Bowser cheered. Severus reappeared over the box and waves his hand. A fast moving laser launches itself at Spyro. He rolls to the side, barely dodging it, then jumps to avoid a second, and dives to the ground to avoid a third. He rebounds off the ground and flies into Severus at a speed that lit him on fire. Ember cheers.

"Hey, Cynder, wasn't that the comet dash move you used on Guy?" Cynder nodded. Severus, clearly displeased, floats to the other end of the room and charges up a beam of energy. Spyro begins to do the same. They release the beams, Severus's black and Spyro's a magnificent golden color. The two beams meet dead on, and there's a large blast.

"WAAAAAAAH! Everything's shaking!" Luigi cried. The smoke cleared and everyone saw that Spyro and Severus's beams were in a stale mate. Neither could push the other's back.

"Ngh… gah… urgh… n-not bad… for a… kid" Severus growled through his gritted teeth.

"Well… I l-learned from the best, d-dad." Spyro said as he thrusts his arms forward. His beam begins to inch toward Severus.

"Ngh… gah… urgh… NO! NO! Curse you, dragon!" And at that point Spyro's beam hit him. There was a flash of white, and Severus collapsed in a heap on the ground. Spyro landed next to him.

"Not so tough now, huh Severus? What do you have to say to that?" Severus gritted hit teeth. But Spyro's smirk quickly died down, as Severus started laughing.

"Ah ha ha ha ha. Even with defeat… I'll still have… victory!" And with those last words, Spyro screamed as a black energy ball ran him into a column. The column exploded and the rubble collapsed in a pile on top of him. "Ah ha ha ha. Now it's your turn… High Max." And with that, a purple box appeared around Severus, and he disappeared. High Max now descended next to the swirling box.

"You!" Ember cried out, angrily.

"Yes, me, who did you expect? That dragon may be free, but that doesn't mean I can't crush him for the second time." Suddenly, the pile of rubble begins shaking. Everyone can faintly hear a voice yelling…

"…blast!" And with that, the pile exploded, shooting rubble in High Max's direction. He merely cups his hands together, and puts up his barrier. The rubble harmlessly bounces off the ancient text as Spyro bolts in front of High Max.

"Grrr… you again. You're not going to beat me again! I'm stronger, now!" High Max merely grunts and floats higher in the air.

"That means nothing to me. With this move…" High Max cups his hands together and four small energy balls shoot out at Spyro. Spyro's tail glows yellow and he smacks the energy balls, knocking them back toward High Max. High Max throws up his barrier again, and floats down to Spyro's level. Spyro leaps at High Max and shoots an ice shard, destroying the barriers. High Max flashes white.

"Spyro!" Zero yells, "He's vulnerable! Use your flame breath!" Spyro shrugs and unleashes a stream of white flames at High Max. High Max instantly crashes to the ground.

"Shock…" He said before rising back into the air. He floats to the other side of the corridor and cups his hands together. "With this move…" Instantly, the energy inside his hands grows around him. Suddenly, several small energy balls begin flying at Spyro. He leaps in the air and doges one, then ducks under another, then slams his body against the wall to dodge a third, then flies over a fourth, until he's hit by a fifth. He screams as the tiny, but highly-dangerous energy ball singes his wing, and he crashes to the ground. High Max continues to fire out energy balls, they all collide into Spyro and a small explosion ensues.

"SPYRO!" Flame cries. High Max floats back down to a few inches off the ground.

"Pathetic. He's still too weak for the likes of me." Suddenly, High Max is flashing white. A gold energy ball strikes him in the back, and he crashes to the ground.

"How… impossible… I couldn't even see him." Suddenly, a brilliant golden light envelopes High Max.

"ARGH! My eyes!" Screams Pikachu. The light grows stronger, then finally dies down. High Max is now flashing white much faster.

"We shall meet again… dragon." Several small explosions encase High Max, and there's a bright white flash. When it stops, High Max is gone… and floating there, to the shock of every person in the room is a golden dragon. Every feature about him is gold, his scales, his eyes, and his wings, all emitting a shimmering golden glow. The dragon is outlined by an aura of steaming white and gold flames. The forcefield around the good guys is destroyed, and they all run up to the dragon.

"S-S-Spyro?!" Flame asks. The dragon nods his head. "SPYRO?! How… why… is that… I mean… look at you! You're _gold_ man! Since when can you do that?!" Spyro gives him a confused look, then looks at his paws, he gasps.

"What the… I didn't… did I?! What did I do?! What's happening to me?" Spyro closes his eyes, and thinks real hard. As he does, he slowly fades back to his normal color. He lands on the ground with a thud, and examines the tattoo on his paw, which is glowing gold. "Did my mark have anything to do with it?" He asked, turning toward Epsilon.

"I'm sorry, I was given _strict_ orders that someone else would tell you." Spyro pouts slightly, but quickly perishes the though.

"Anyway… let's all forget about it! I'm sure we'll forget while we're beating up on helpless Gate." Bowser laughs.

"I know! I mean, did you see that guy? He's just a nerdy scientist!" The others laugh, even Shadow. Epsilon and Zero, however, are not pleased by the insults.

"Come on guys… lighten up a little bit!" Pikachu says. Zero shakes his head.

"Between us three. Gate is anything but harmless." Pikachu just gives him a confused look, then follows the others through the large door. Epsilon sighs.

"Guess they'll have to learn the hard way." He floats through the door.

ASTRONOMY TOWER 2030 HOURS

Gate is pacing back and forth, in front of a large window. He pauses every so often to check the clock on the wall or stare at the sun, which has almost disappeared behind the horizon. "Damn!" Gate yells. "I don't know how long Severus and High Max can stall them… hurry up! The last thing I want is…" An explosion is heard, the door Gate had bolted shut was blown up, and the heroes jump through the hole. Bowser assumes a fighting stance.

"Alright! It's time to kick some butt and chew bubble gum… and we're all out of bubble gum!" Spyro's eyes go wide.

"WHAAAAAAAAAT?! That doesn't make _any _sense!" Shadow pats him on the back.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Here's how you handle it." Shadow walks up to Bowser and taps him on the shoulder. Bowser turns around and Shadow whips out his trademark rifle and blasts Bowser in the head. The now smoking Bowser topples over. Shadow walks back to Spyro. "So the moral of the story is…"

"…when confronted with a problem, blast it with a rifle?" Shadow bangs his head against the wall.

"NO! Ignore Bowser!" Spyro smiles.

"I knew that!" White Mage falls down anime style.

"Yes, yes…" Gate began, "if you're quite finished… I can proceed with finishing you all off!" Bowser laughs.

"Give me a break! Look at you! You're a wimpy scientist! What could you possibly…" At that moment, Gate grabs his lab coat and pulls it back, revealing it to actually be a white cape, concealing golden battle armor. Bowser's jaw drops. Shadow shoots him in the head again with a rifle.

"Maybe that'll shut you up, for once." He grumbled. Gate laughs.

"What's the matter… surprised? You thought I was just a wimpy scientist? Well, that only works to my advantage then, doesn't it?" Gate levitates into the air. "Now I shall bring your glorious resistance to fruition! Take your best shot!" Shadow pulls out his rifle and shoots at Gate.

"Can… and will do." The shot hits Gate, but harmlessly bounces off him.

"Pathetic… let me show you how I roll!" Gate thrusts one of his hands forward. A blue energy ball shoots out at blazing fast speeds into Shadow. Shadow is instantly encased in a thick sheet of ice. Zero's eyes widen.

"Since when can _you_ do that?!" He yells. Gate laughs.

"I had a few _upgrades_ since our last encounter! You know Spyro, Severus made you a _magnificent_ programmer! Who would've thought that a _dragon_ with no technical experience whatsoever can provide a super genius like myself with unique, magic-based upgrades! HA HA HA HA HA!" Spyro gasps.

"You mean… that while Severus was controlling me…" Gate nodded, then fires a yellow energy ball at Spyro. The attack hits him square on, and bolts of yellow lightning rain down on him from above. He roars in agony as his body is thoroughly burned by the attacks. He struggles to his feet, licking the trickle of blood from his mouth. Gate laughs again.

"It's time to end this!" Gate raises his hand in the air. Purple and black energy begins to gather in it. He raises it higher and beams of purple energy rain from his hand. The good guys all begin running around the room.

"HELP!" Spyro screams, "A MADMAN'S TRYING TO KILL ME! HELP! HELP!" Flame grabs his head.

"Woah… serious déjà vu!" They skid to a halt in front of where they were just standing. Zero opens his mouth to speak, but is panting too hard.

"Guys… Gate's armor… is… weak… to his own… energy balls… we have to attack them… and they'll explode… into smaller parts… and hit him. But his energy balls used to be slow… how are we gonna attack something moving so fast?!"

END CHAPTER 22! 

**This is it! The showdown with the guy behind it all! But our heroes have no way of attacking Gate! Way to go, Spyro… you may have just screwed yourself over! Find out what happens, next chapter!**

Next time, Chapter 23- It's Not Over!


	24. It's not over!

**Author's Note: Alright, here's the next chapter. The epic conclusion to the battle with Gate!**

**Chapter 23- It's not over!**

Gate fires another round of lasers, and the good guy split up. Gate extends his hand and fires an orange energy ball at Flame. "Oh no you don't!" He yells as he slams the energy ball with his tail. The energy ball instantly explodes into six smaller ones. Flame is caught of guard and struck by three of them, and he is instantly lit ablaze by a powerful orange fire. Another one hits Gate, and he begins flashing white.

"YEAAAAAAAARGH! The pain! How were you able to stop that attack?!" Gate quickly regains his composure and floats to the other side of the room. He puts his hands forward, and begins moving them up and down. Spyro, who's still giving off smoke from Gate's last attack, is lifted into the air and thrown at the large window. He slams through it, shattering it. He screams as the glass cuts his wings.

"Oh no… OH NOOOOOOOOOO!" Spyro extends his arm out, the edge of his claws just barely latching onto the base of the window. "HELP! There are shards of glass stuck in my wings!" Cynder tries to run over to Spyro, but Gate fires a green energy ball at her. It careens into her, and a giant whirlwind appears, flattening her against the ceiling. Epsilon quickly teleports to Spyro, picks him up, and chucks him at the oncoming energy ball. Spyro slams the ball with his fist, which is glowing yellow with electric energy. The ball splits apart, and hits Gate again, who flashes white.

"Urgh… not bad, punks… but I'm just getting warmed up!" Gate raises his hand in the air again, as energy begins to form in his hand. He raises it higher and a giant stream of energy pours out. Bowser and Pikachu quickly roll to the side to dodge it but Gate begins sweeping the beam around the room. Epsilon, Zero, Dragoon, Ember, Flame and White Mage are caught in the blast and are slammed into the wall.

"Damn…" Dragoon yelled out, "where'd he get firepower like that?!" Bowser and Spyro jump in front of him, dodging another laser. Bowser turns to Spyro.

"Listen, purple guy, when I die… you better stay away from my funeral!" Spyro stares at him, startled.

"What have I done to you?!" Bowser stomps his foot. Luigi runs by and yells at Spyro.

"HELLO! It was you who upgraded that freak; it's YOUR fault we're in this mess!" Spyro glares at them both.

"Oh right… like I _really_ had a choice, I was _brainwashed_!" Bowser stomps his foot again.

"So… why should you get super smart by magic, when I can't even answer one question right in Big Brain Academy on Doopliss's DS?!" Bowser is then blasted by a blue energy ball and frozen solid. Spyro jumps to the side to dodge another, then ducks under a third, while ice meleeing it back at Gate. This time, Gate moves to the side, dodging it with ease.

"Tsk, tsk… I told you I was going to be victorious, and intend to keep it that way!" Gate floats over to Spyro and slashes the air near him. A giant purple crescent of energy forms and slams him into a computer. The overloaded generator explodes, sending the screaming Spyro into a red energy ball from Gate. Spyro gets ready to slam it with a head bash.

"NO!" Zero screams. "DON'T ATTACK THE RED ONE! IT'S GONNA…" But it's too late. Spyro head bashes the red one and it explodes on contact, and Spyro slams into the ground. "…explode. Damn." Zero dashed toward Gate, who fires a blue energy ball at him. Zero slashes the ball with his saber, then jumps over the smaller energy balls as one hits Gate again.

"I will not be outmaneuvered!" Gate raises his hand again. He raises it higher and black beams rain down onto the good guys. The jump, fly, duck, roll and even turn themselves transparent (in the case of White Mage and Epsilon) to dodge the onslaught. But as they're focused on that, a ball of energy encircles Gate. It suddenly sprouts spikes, and Gate begins bouncing around the room, encased in his energy mace. Dragoon quickly blaze kicks to the side to just miss being flattened, while Shadow (who's still frozen) is hit and the ice encasing him explodes, sending shards everywhere. Shadow grabs his head, dizzy.

"That was… cold." He said as he aimed his rifle at an oncoming yellow energy ball. Shadow dives to the side to avoid the small trio of energy balls flying at him. Gate manages to dodge the center energy ball but is hit by the one going left. He flashes white, only this time, for much longer. Pikachu suddenly jumps next to Zero, dodging one of Gate's energy crescents.

"How many more times do you think we have to hit him?!" Zero quickly dodged a laser.

"I have no idea! Normally, Gate would've been finished but _SOMEBODY_ upgraded him!" Spyro quickly slammed an orange energy ball, knocking it back at Gate.

"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?! It's not my fault! It's all Severus!" Spyro yelled as he's struck in the back by a laser from Gate. He screams as his already singed body is struck again. Gate raises his hand in the air again. Purple energy begins swirling around his hand. He slams his fist to the ground, unleashing a deadly purple shockwave. Cynder quickly grabs the nearby Dragoon and, with a mighty bound, leaps over the shockwave. Ember grabs Flame with her tail and chucks him over the shockwave, and is then hit dead on by the attack. Flame flies over to her.

"Ember?! EMBER?! Are you okay? ARE YOU MAD? Why didn't you save yourself?!" Ember just smiled and looked up at him.

"You were in danger, I had to help you. It's just like how Spyro helped you in Ice Cavern." Flame smiled back at her, but the two instantly darted away from one of Gate's red energy balls. He fires another red one toward White Mage and Pikachu.

"DUCK!" White Mage yelled.

"Where?" Pikachu asked, looking around. White Mage grabs Pikachu and pushes him down under the attack. "Oh… I get it!" Zero and Epsilon are running from another one of Gate's giant energy beams. He stops firing and instead shoots a blue energy ball. Epsilon transforms his sword into a saber and slashes the energy ball. He quickly turns transparent, dodging the attack. Gate dodges one of the smaller energy balls, but is hit by another. He flashes white for an entire minute.

"Don't you guys ever give up? You should all be knocked out like your frozen friend by now!" Gate raises his hand again. He raises it higher, and a storm of red energy balls rain from it. The good guys all try to dodge the best they can, but they can't avoid the energy balls and the explosions. After several minutes of this, only Zero, Cynder, Flame, Dragoon, Ember and Spyro are left standing.

"How much longer do we have to keep doing this?" Ember cried, panting from the effort. Spyro drops his head in defeat.

"This is all my fault… _again_." He said as he let himself get hit by another of Gate's red energy balls. Ember runs over to him.

"Spyro! Snap out of it! You can't give up now! We're trying just as hard as you… we're not mad at you! You weren't acting on your own free will when you upgraded him! Just help us stop him." She reached her hand out to help him up, but is blasted by a much larger energy beam from Gate. He laughs.

"Just keep this up Spyro. You're turning your friends into sitting ducks for me!" Ember slowly lifted her head up, struggling with the effort.

"Spyro… you can beat him… I believe in you…" She finishes and her head slams down on the ground with a thud. Spyro turn to Gate, no thoughts other than anger racing through his mind.

"You've caused us enough trouble! It's time to pay for all the suffering you've caused me… my friends… and my family!" Spyro lunges at Gate. Gate launches a red energy ball but Spyro easily ducks under it. He grabs Gate and slams him into a computer, breaking it. His hands glowing with electrical power, he grabs two severed wires and slams them against Gate's forehead. Loud, distorted static is heard, and Gate begins flashing white, before the computer explodes, throwing Spyro to the ground.

"Ngh… gah… urgh… no! NO! How did I lose… this can't be!" Gate's battered body glows purple, as a shadowy black smoke flies out of him, and forms into none other then…

"SEVERUS!" The still-conscious good guys call out.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha… huh? I don't understand… I had the body, the power… and I still lost!" Severus slammed his fist against the broken computer. "That Severus you guys have been fighting the entire time… fake. Fake as can be. Merely a clone of my creation!" Flame grits his teeth.

"So… you've been _possessing_ Gate the entire time?" Severus laughs.

"My, my, somebody wore his thinking cap today! OF COURSE I DID YOU FOOL! I needed to make it look like I wasn't the one behind this scheme, so I'd be able complete my plans _and_ wipe Spyro off the face of the earth… once and for all!" Severus frowns. "But I see now it's going to be harder than I thought. You're all causing me enough a problem as is. But it doesn't matter, the Final Weapon will ready soon, and there's nothing you can do to stop it once it's ready!" Severus laughs and turns to Gate. "Worthless piece of scrap metal… I have no need for you anymore." Severus begins to charge up energy in his hands.

"Man… that's not fair!" Spyro growls. "Why should Gate die if it's really all Severus's fault in the first place?" Cynder looks at him.

"Spyro… there's nothing you can do about it." Spyro turn back at her.

"No… I will not let someone innocent be hurt by that madman! Cynder, I didn't leave you after I'd beaten you, and you didn't give up on me, even when I'd almost killed you! I'm… going in." Spyro lunges into the air. Severus suddenly turns around and sees him.

"Stop! What are you doing you brainless dragon? Quit it!" Spyro slams into Severus, knocking him out the window. He picks Gate up and puts him down next to Zero.

"Can you fix him?" Spyro asked. Zero shook his head.

"I think you should be asking yourself that question; you upgraded him, after all." Spyro panicked, as he looked around the room. He thinks for a second then snaps his fingers. He puts his hands against Gate and they begin glowing white. The broken computer instantly lights up, and several mechanical pieces fly out of in and swirl around Gate. There's a bright flash, and when it's over, Gate is back to normal. He opens his eyes.

"Gah! Stupid Severus! I give him a body, and he controls me as his thanks? I'm gonna kill that little weasel!" Spyro shakes his head.

"Perish the thought… you can't kill him, you'll turn to stone if you try." Flame looks at him, confused. "Well, Severus was created using the Master Dark Gem. The only way to kill him, and turn him back into the creature he once was, is to destroy the gem. But only those of ancient descent can touch it, anyone else would turn to stone." He turns to Zero again. "He also mentions a Final Weapon… have you heard of such a thing?" Zero nods.

"The Final Weapon was the name of a satellite created by Repliforce… it had an ion cannon built into it and they were going to fire it, killing off all the humans." Gate snapped his fingers.

"Wait! I remember! Severus plans to hook his dark gem up to the Nightmare Ray mk. II that I had built on board the Final Weapon! One blast of that ray and there will a nightmare of every single inhabitant on this planet!" Spyro's eyes lit up.

"I remember now! He was calling it, the Enigma Project! He must've named his nightmare cannon Enigma! We can't let him fire that ray!" Gate nods. Zero turns to the others, who are clearly confused.

"A nightmare that's given artificial intelligence, like Severus, has twice the strength, speed, stamina… twice the everything of the flesh form of whatever was used to create it." Flame's eyes go wide with shock.

"But then… he could easily have the nightmares defeat their flesh forms! That would be horrible!" He slams his fist on the ground. "And we still have 4 dark gems left to destroy if we want to disable the forcefield around Gate's Lab!" At that moment, a small ding is heard; and a purple and black, translucent box has formed around Spyro.

"What the…?" He tried to slam the box with his tail; nothing happened. "Guys! Get me out of here! Help!" Severus then floats back up to the edge of the window.

"Ah ha ha ha ha! I see you've pieced together my magnificent plan! Too bad you won't live long enough to see it in action!" Severus waves his arms in the air. A steel briefcase with a small electronic screen appears on it, and gently floats to the ground. A timer appears on the screen, showing 3:00.

"Is that… A BOMB?!" Cynder cried. Severus laughs again.

"Why, yes, it is! And just in case you thought that Spyro can disable that with a little of his magic… think again! It's time for us to part! Ciao!" Severus snaps his fingers. Suddenly, the box Spyro's in begins exploding; one explosion after another, continuing for several seconds. Spyro screams in pain; Severus laughs and snaps his fingers again, before vanishing. They hear a small beep, followed by another, and another.

"Oh no!" Dragoon began, "the bomb's timer has started! We gotta get out of here quick!" Zero turns around and sees Cynder knelt next to Spyro.

"Guys… he's hurt… and really bad to!" She comments as they all stare at his back, which is completely red.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Flame cries. Zero thinks for a second.

"I got it!" Zero walks over to Epsilon and slashes him with his saber. Epsilon jerks to his feet.

"Hey… what's going on? And… why aren't we fighting Gate?" Epsilon growls. Flame grabs his shoulders and starts shaking him.

"We're about to get blown up if you don't teleport us out of here quickly! Gate was just being possessed by Severus! You have to hurry!" The counter on the bomb suddenly beeps much louder.

"10 seconds!" Cynder cries. Flame turns back to Epsilon, who's digging through his armor.

"GAH! I can't find the Chaos Emerald… where did I put it?" Epsilon curses as he fumbles through his pockets.

"5 seconds!" Cynder screams. "4…! 3…!" Epsilon thrusts his trembling hands out of his pockets, fumbling the glimmering gem. "2…!" Cynder screams. Epsilon catches the gem.

"Chaos…" Epsilon yells, extending the emerald in front of him.

"_**ONE!**_"

"CONTROL!" Epsilon yells and the entire room freezes. The emerald flashes, and the heroes vanish from the room.

We cut to a view of the school, from the festivities in BeanBean Castle Town. A loud, banging noise is heard. Peach turns around and gasps as she see Woohoo Honiversity explode. "Oh no! They're all in there!" Suddenly, there's a bright flash and the heroes appear in front of Peach. Several of them are unconscious. She also notices Gate standing with them and gasps. Cynder runs up to her. "That's…" Peach begins, but Cynder grabs her arm, dragging her away from the startled crowd.

"It's Spyro…" She begins, "…he's hurt! He needs medical attention!" Peach quickly grabs Bob from Epsilon's pocket and dials 911. A woman's voice appears on the other line.

"You've reached the M.R.U.N. department of emergencies. For the police, press 1… for the fire department, press 2… for the office of assistant head of the department of emergencies, Mark Highlander, press 3…"

"Crap!" Peach yells, "I don't have time for this!" The voice continues speaking.

"…for Wright and Co. law offices, press 6… for the M.R.U.N. International Emergency Hospital, press 7…" Peach slams down on the number 7. The phone rings for 10 seconds. The woman's voice appears again.

"Welcome to the M.R.U.N. International Emergency hospital; located at the M.R.U.N. headquarters, in Imperial City, Mobius. To contact the front desk, press 1…"

"NOT AGAIN!" Peach yells. Cynder and the others are gathered around Spyro, whose breathing has become much harder now. We go back to Peach and Bob.

"…to arrange for an emergency ambulance, press 0." Peach slams down on the number 0. The phone rings again. A man's voice is on the other end.

"This is the Emergency Ambulance Hotline. I'm Steven, how can I help you?" Peach begins to speak in as calm a manner as possible.

"Hi, Steven! It's me, Princess Peach! I'm calling because one of my… er… body guards was blasted in the back by one of our firecrackers… in malfunctioned. His entire back is bleeding… we need help, fast!" Peach hears a deep breath from the other end of the line.

"Alright… I've found an ambulance that's currently in Little Fungitown. What's your location?"

"BeanBean Castle Town!" Steven breathes deeply again.

"That's super convenient! Alright… we're looking at an approximate 10 minute trip to get there… but a much longer trip to get to our hospital… but we have plenty of supplies in these ambulances. Don't worry, Princess, will make sure he's okay. Can I just have the patient's name?" Peach glances at the phone nervously.

"Err… its Spyro."

"Last name?" Peach turns to Cynder. Cynder whispers something in her ear.

"We're not sure. We'd ask him, but he's out cold." Steven breaths deeply again.

"That's okay. Age?" Peach turns to Cynder.

"13." She answers. Peach repeats it into the phone.

"Alright. Gender? Male… I can tell by the name. Species?" Peach sweats nervously.

"I know you're gonna find this hard to believe… dragon." Steven breaths deeply again.

"No problem. We'll contact Dr. Lelenthal and Dr. Nitros. Injury?" Peach calms down.

"Flesh wound to the back." Steven breaths deeply yet again.

"Alright. I've just contacted the two of them… they'll be over as quick as they can." Peach sighs.

"Thanks, Steven! You're a big help!"

"Just doing my job, ma'am." Steven says, and Peach hangs up. Cynder turns to her, a tear trickling down her face.

"Don't worry… it should be here any…" At that moment, three sets of sirens are heard. A giant ambulance pulls behind the stage which Peach is standing on. The crowd gasps. The ambulance bares the logo of the M.R.U.N.; a shield with a picture of planet earth on it, surrounded by a diagonal orbital ring (like the kind Saturn has). Two police cars pull up on either side of the ambulance. Three men in bulletproof vests climb out of the ambulance; they run up to Peach.

"Which one's the victim?" One of the men asks. Peach motions to Spyro. The man winces a little, then regains his composure. "Alright, boys, get to it!" The other two men lift Spyro up in a stretcher and pull him into the ambulance. A white human dressed in a black suit, with a white tie, sunglasses, and a device in his ear walks up peach. He has spiky brown hair.

"Princess Peach… my name is agent Damon Darke of the M.R.U.N. department of alternate dimensional research." Damon says as he displays his badge and I.D. "We were just recently established when the news of the appearance of dragons reached President Rose. He'd like for you and your friends to accompany Spyro to our headquarters immediately. We're going to give you a police escort. You can stay with your friend in the Emergency Room. But once he's got his strength back, President Rose would like to see all of you." Peach nodded and turned to the others.

"Guys… we're going to go with Spyro to the M.R.U.N. headquarters. We're all going to meet with the president of the organization, Sam Rose, once Spyro's healed. We have to get in the police cars." They all exchange nervous looks before slowly climbing in the police cars. Meanwhile, another man in a bulletproof vest is shouting at the crowd through a megaphone.

"Please step away from the vehicles! There is nothing to see here! We will be on our way shortly!" Damon calls out to the man, and he runs back into the ambulance. The three vehicles pull out of the area and drive off on the highway. We cut to inside one of the cars, where Zero is talking with Cynder.

"Don't worry. The M.R.U.N.'s hospital is the most state-of-the-art medical facility on the planet. I'm sure they'll take good care of Spyro. If they can repair a robot as complex as myself, I'm sure they can heal a dragon." Ember turns around to him from her seat in front.

"Just what does M.R.U.N. stand for, anyway?" Damon speaks to her as he drives.

"Mortal Realm United Nations. We're the largest organization on the entire planet. We have over 100 departments dedicated to maintaining order and peace throughout the world. My department was established yesterday, when one of our cameras caught your battle on Yoshi's Island." Ember nodded.

"Interesting… very interesting…"

END CHAPTER 23!

**Epsilon: You know, this type of cliffhanger is such a big clich****é**…

**WHATEVER! You'll just have to read the next chapter to see what happens to Spyro!**

Next time, Chapter 24- The M.R.U.N. part 1


	25. The MRUN part 1

**Author's Note: Alright, this next portion of the story consists of 2 or 3 parts. In it, you're gonna learn more about this mysterious organization, the M.R.U.N. Apologies for the time it took me to write this. I've been rather busy. In case you didn't know, my new username is now Nightmare King. Nightmare King is a boss in Megaman X6. **

**Chapter 24- The M.R.U.N., part 1**

EMERGENCY HOSPITAL 0200 HOURS

A faint, beeping sound can be heard. The interval of the beep is consistently short. We then see Epsilon, who takes a deep breath. "Did you hear anything?" Ember asked, leaning in towards him.

"The heart meter is still beeping much faster than normal. That must've been one powerful blast." Just then, a door opens, and Dr. Nitros walked out. He removes surgical gloves from his hands. Epsilon turns around to him. "What's up with Spyro, doc?" Dr. Nitros shakes his shaggy white hair around, then pushes his glasses back up to his eyes.

"I managed to seal up the wound… but Jon thinks he can magically heal Spyro. Say, why didn't you heal him?" He turns to White Mage. White Mage shrugs.

"Out of mana, I suppose." Ember stares at her, obviously confused.

"What's mana… is it a type of fruit?" White Mage shook her head.

"You see… unlike the deadly trio, mages have to take magical energy from inside themselves. When we run out… or have to little to cast a spell, we're out of mana." Epsilon briefly smirks at this statement.

"Deadly trio, huh? Is that your nickname for us? I think someone's a little jealous." Cynder giggles.

"I am not! I'm just saying that you three blew up a quarter of an island! Heck, yeah, you guys are dangerous! That's the probably the whole reason why WE got dragged here." Cynder mumbled something and turns back to a book that she found, titled _The Users Guide to Mastery of White and Black Magic_. We see her reading through a page:

**Chapter 11- Curaja and Full Life**

_By far the two most powerful White Magic spells would have to be Curaja and Full Life. Curaja is a spell capable of completely healing the user of any battle injuries, no matter how big. For mages, it requires the use of all of their mana; if their mana is full, the spell may only take about three quarters of their mana. For other creatures, the spell will require a large amount of energy to be summoned. Full Life is the same thing. Full Life is capable of healing and waking up any unconscious person. It's also capable of reviving the dead to some extent. The longer the person's been dead, the harder it is for the spell to work. _

Cynder quickly turned to a flower pot on the window sill. She frowned, the flower was dying. She closed her eyes and focused on the flower. A small red aura appeared around it. The flower instantly popped back up, revealing itself to be a rose. Cynder smiled, satisfied. But she then dropped the book on the floor by accident. As she picked it up, she saw it was open to a spell that sounded really neat.

**Chapter 50- Ultima**

_Since the beginning of magic itself, there's existed one spell that has been elusive to nearly every magical being in existence; Ultima. The spell is the ultimate Black Magic spell; even creatures possessing no mana or magical ability whatsoever can utilize its power… if, that is, they can find the Crystal of Azeroth. This crystal was hidden away by the only creature to ever utilize the spell, the king of dragons, Lord Azeroth. He hid it away as his death, in his temple in the Forgotten Realms. This spell can do one of two things; for creatures will little/no magical ability, it will cause heave internal damage to the user's foes, and drain him/her of any magical energy he/she posses. For creatures skilled in the magical arts, this spell could mean death for he who is attacked. Over 100 different creatures have searched for the temple, but haven't found it._

_That's because it's back in our dimension._ Cynder thought. She turns the page and reads the final chapter.

**Chapter 51- Dark Magic: Fact or Fiction?**

_There is one type of magic that seems to exist on this planet that has never been used by a mage or magician: dark magic. A seemingly powered-up version of Black Magic, dark magic is the source of spells such as Shadow Ball, Incineration, Dark Bolt and a spell known as Hell Blast. Additionally, people can use dark magic to control other beings, mind read, possess someone's body, and penetrate the magical barriers around someone's mind, giving you access to the their thoughts. _

"What are you reading?!" Ember asked. "Doesn't your magical ability just come to you?" Cynder stared at her.

"Yeah… but I'd like… to know more about what spells I'm casting." She lied. Ember eyed her suspiciously. Then backed away and continued talking with Flame. Cynder turned toward Epsilon. She leaned over and whispered to him.

"Psst… Epsilon! What's Ultima?" Epsilon turned around and glared at her.

"You are too young to learn about a spell like that." He growled. She frowned and hissed at him slightly. Epsilon smirks, "You think that because I'm technically your half-brother… I'm going to treat you any different than before? Not likely." Cynder hissed at him again, and turned back to her book. At that moment, the door opened and Dr. Lelenthal walked through.

"The operation went… well, for a wound so big. There is one problem. His tests show that Severus had injected him with a strange poison. It only stayed present in his body for a short time, but it has greatly weakened him and caused significant blood loss. He's about 15 below the normal red blood cell count in a dragon's body. I'll have to take blood from someone with the same type as him. I'm going to have to test the _eligible_ people… you four (he motions to the dragons) and you (he points to Bowser)."

"What… why me?!" Bowser cried.

"Because you're part reptile… why do you think we always call you an overgrown lizard?" Luigi responded. Epsilon turned to Dr. Lelenthal.

"No can do, Doc L. When I underwent surgery with Vic, he replaced my normal bodily fluids with poison." Cynder stared at him, wide-eyed.

"POISON?! Shouldn't you be dead?" She asked. Epsilon smirked again.

"No… the poison is exactly the fluid my body needs to function at the level I perform at. It harms me in no way, but would easily harm my brother." Dr. Lelenthal clears his throat again.

"I'll just need you four to step into the back room with me for a moment." Cynder nods and follows him. Flame and Ember exchange nervous glances and follow her. Bowser just sits there.

"What's the matter…?" Pikachu taunted, "…afraid of the big, mean needle?" Bowser glared at him.

"No way! King Bowser Koopa is NOT afraid of needles! I'll show you guys!" Bowser stands up and walks confidently toward the back room. A girlish scream is heard a second later and Bowser runs out of the room. "KEEP THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!" Bowser dives under the coffee table and curls up into a ball. Pikachu falls down, anime style. Cynder, Flame and Ember walk back out of the room. Dr. Lelenthal comes back out a few seconds later.

"Well… Cynder and Flame are the same blood type as Spyro…" Ember lets out a small sigh of relief. Flame nervously looks toward Cynder, who's just sitting there, calm as ever.

"So…" Dr. Lelenthal began. Flame quickly yells out.

"…Cynder volunteers!" He raises her hand and quickly dives under the same coffee table as Bowser. Cynder rolls her eyes, displeased.

"You don't mind… do you?"

"No… I don't mind." She stands up and follows Dr. Lelenthal into a new room.

2 HOURS LATER…

Bowser is lying on his row of chairs. "I'm hungry!" He complains. "I haven't eaten anything since we were at the rest stop on the bus…" Luigi grabs his stomach.

"Yeah… I could go for some food right now." Luigi turns around and picks up the telephone attached to the wall. A couple of minutes pass. Luigi hangs up and turns back to the group. "Uh… I guess that's not the phone for food." He walks back to his seat and sits down.

"Hey, Epsilon, couldn't you just _make_ food appear by magic?" Shadow asked. Epsilon shook his head.

"Magic cannon create several things… blood and food two of them. That's why Doc L. is operating on Cynder right now." Shadow grumbled; so did Luigi, Bowser, and Pikachu. At that moment, the door to the waiting room slid open, and Agent Darke walked in with a large rolling shelf.

"We thought you guys might be hungry… so I brought food. Hey, wasn't there a black dragon with you guys?" Flame pointed to the door.

"Dr. Lelenthal's doing a blood transfer. Apparently Severus injected him with some lethal poison that causes blood loss." Bowser jumps up and runs to the cart.

"Awesome! Food! What is it?"

"Well… look for yourself. I'm actually not sure." Darke responded. Bowser stroked his chin.

"Hmmm… I'll need to approach this scientifically!" Peach stares at him in surprise.

"Since when do you do _anything_ sient…"

"Eenie… meenie… miney… THAT ONE!" Bowser grabs the tray closest to him. Doopliss rolls his eyes.

"Meh… I knew it was too good to be true, slick." Doopliss grabs a different plate. Bowser opens his tray.

"Alright! Steak and fries!" Bowser begins cutting his steak with his knife. Doopliss opens his tray.

"Smoked salmon… I thought something smelt fishy." He rolled his eyes and folded up his DS. At that point, the door behind them swung open. Dr. Lelenthal and Cynder walked out of it. Cynder looked a little dizzy.

"The operation worked fantastically! Spyro'll probably wake up in another couple of hours. I'm sure after about 24 hours rest, he'll be ready to go. As for you, Cynder, if you feel drowsy or the need to fall asleep, it's only a natural side effect of the blood loss. Try not to do something that's too physically challenging for a few hours." Cynder nodded, then collapsed on a row of chairs next to Flame and Ember. Dr. Lelenthal walked back into the room. Flame turned to her.

"You okay… man were you crazy! You weren't even scared!" Cynder sighed.

"Well… I'm sure he'll feel better when he knows…"

"What do you mean 'feel better'?" Cynder took a deep breath in.

"He was absolutely crushed when I told him my secret. And he felt really bad about the way he reacted to it. The point is… I thought I'd try and make-up for my mistake… and make him feel like I don't completely hate him for attacking me like that." Ember turned around to the two of them.

"You really are something, aren't you? You've done nothing but surprise me ever since we found you!" She smiled. Cynder weakly returned the smile.

"I'm just trying to be as helpful as I can. When I heard about this, I though maybe, just maybe I'd be able to save Dad from Severus…" Ember nods.

"You really like him, don't you?" She picked her head up slightly.

"What? Severus?" Ember giggled slightly.

"No, silly… Spyro."

"Oh…" Cynder blushed slightly. "Yeah… you could say that. I mean… if you couldn't tell by what you've seen… the _real_ me came into Spyro's life with nothing; no parents, no friends/family. Once we'd defeated the Dark Master, dragons from the Forgotten Realms began to come to us. One of the guardians, Volteer, loved to tell the story of Spyro's battles against the Dark Master. He loved talking about his battle with me… and he always included apart about how he thought there was an evil influence still controlling me…"

"But there was! Severus put that power lock spell on you!" Cynder nodded.

"…I know. But I couldn't make any real friends because all the other dragonlings were afraid of me. Well… they were. Things started to get better as Spyro began spending more time around me. Everyone really like Spyro, they must've gotten the idea that if _he_ was with me, it was safe for _them_ to be with me. And then of course, Severus froze me in the ice." Ember nodded. "So in a way… yeah… Spyro's closer to me than anyone else in these dimensions. I mean, Severus is sort of close to me… but more in a, 'I'd like to kill you the next time I see you' kind of way." The others chuckled at this.

"Well it's only natural for one who's gone through what you have." Epsilon chimed in. Gate nodded.

"Actually… if I can remember correctly. I think I… not under Severus's control… hid the last gem in a place that would enrage him if we found it. We might want to go there next.

_A place that would enrage him? Could that be the temple where HIS master gem is? And is that temple… the temple of Azeroth? _Cynder thought. A loud burp was heard from Bowser.

"That was the best steak I've had since… well… ever!" He smiles and notices Cynder. "Oh… hey… um… er… it's Cynder, right?"

"As amazing as it is for me to say this… yes." Bowser pumped his fist in the air.

"YES! I remembered something! Score one for my brain!"

"Or lack there of…" Dragoon commented, smirking. Bowser fell out of his chairs, everyone else laughing.

"Aw… why no love for Bowser?" He said, pouting.

ANOTHER 2 HOURS OF WATCHING MOVIES LATER…

Dr. Lelenthal once again walks out of the door. "That's probably the longest night I'll spend up. Of course… you guys keep getting yourself into trouble like this and I'll have plenty of sleepless nights!" He laughs; a gruff, deep laugh, which slightly startles everyone.

"So… how is he?" Ember asked. Dr. Lelenthal looked up at her as he played around with his metal pincer.

"Oh… Spyro? He's fine. He just woke up. You can see him if you want… but then you'll have to leave. There are plenty of other things to do here… and it would be boring to spend the next day in a waiting room." Cynder stood up but a purple paw grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back; it was Epsilon. Flame and Ember looked at her; she motioned to them, as if to say "you first". They nodded and followed Dr. Lelenthal. Epsilon turned to Cynder.

"Alright… why do you want to know about Ultima?" Cynder took a deep breath.

"I know this sound strange… but there's this thought in the back of my head that says that Spyro is not 100 back to normal. I thought if I learned the spell… it'd be a quick and easy way to beat him again." Epsilon frowned.

"You think we're just gonna go to the Temple of Azeroth?" Cynder smiled.

"Remember how Gate mentioned hiding a dark gem in a place that would drive Severus mad if he found out; I'm thinking that Severus hid the master gem in the Temple of Azeroth. Maybe, Dad was looking for the Crystal of Azeroth… but found the master gem instead. Maybe… we've got a key to beating Severus!" Epsilon stared at her, his eyes wide.

"What you just said… makes complete sense. From what I remember, Vraël was angered by his poor performance in training. He went to the temple, seeking something that would make him more powerful; which you claim is Ultima. He found A CRYSTAL but it was actually Severus's master dark gem, which took control of him, and trapped most of his spirit and power in the gem." Cynder nodded, pleased with her inference. Flame and Ember walked out of the door, and Cynder stood up and walked in. Epsilon quickly whispered, "Don't tell Spyro about this. If there is some evil force still controlling him, he can't find out about Ultima, or he'll get it for himself. And don't tell him about the master gem; he might tell Severus that we know where it is." Cynder nodded and followed Dr. Lelenthal through the door. She walked down a long hallway, till she reached the last door on her right. She slowly opened it and walked through it. Spyro was sitting on the windowsill, staring out at the modernized city in front of him. Tall buildings and skyscrapers as far as the horizon. Neon screens, flashing lights, and faint music could be heard from one part of the city, and the other part was black; obviously sleeping.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Spyro said. He stepped down from the windowsill. He looked fine, except his back which looked like it'd been painted red. "So… I heard you helped Dr. Lelenthal, in a way, heal me." Cynder nodded.

"Y-Y-yeah, I did." Spyro looked up at her.

"That was… generous of you. I thought… you were angry at me…"

"And I thought you were angry at _me_!" Spyro walked closer to her.

"But when you pushed me in the fountain…"

"…I was just having a little fun! I felt I needed something to laugh at; and it was the first thing that came to mind." Spyro walked next to her.

"There is one thing that confuses me… why did you do it?" Cynder blushed slightly.

"Because… I didn't want to lose you, again. Two times was already too much to bear." She replied. Spyro looked at her, confused.

"Two…?" Cynder nodded.

"Once when I was frozen, and once when High Max kidnapped you." Spyro smiled.

"Well… um… how should I say this…?" Cynder smiled and nudged him in a friendly kind of way.

"Try 'thank you'." Spyro responded with a smug grin.

"Or… I could try this…" And he quickly kissed her on the cheek. Her eyes lit up.

"Yup, you're still the same old Spyro!" She commented, smiling. Spyro jumped back on the windowsill.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" He asked.

"Yeah… I'll see you tomorrow." She said and she walked out the door, placing a paw against her cheek. _He does still like me! Thank goodness!_

M.R.U.N. COMPUTER LABORATORIES 0700 HOURS

The group (minus Spyro) walks into a giant room, lined with computers. About half of them are filled with people who are working at them. Bowser walks up to a computer station and presses the power button. Instantly, a holographic screen and keyboard appear. "This is badical!" Shadow shoots him in the head with his rifle.

"Never use that word again." He said. Bowser types on the keyboard, a game appears on the screen.

"3D Pong! Prepare for defeat, Left Pong Paddle!" Bowser begins maneuvering the mouse; he loses a point in 5 second. "Curses! Foiled again!"

"Honestly," Ember said to Luigi, "how did this guy make evil plans?" Luigi shrugs.

"We pretty much think he's smarter when he's evil." He answered. Ember laughed. At that moment, a Toad in a suit and sunglasses runs in and taps Epsilon on the shoulder.

"President Rose asked I show you guys to the area where you'll stay." Epsilon rolled his eyes.

"Very well… go ahead." The Toad walks out of the room, the others following. _This whole organization is strange; you'd have to be crazy to work for them._

END CHAPTER 24!

Next time, Chapter 25- The M.R.U.N. part 2


	26. The MRUN part 2

**Author's Note: Here's the next update! It's got a much happier mood than most of the previous chapters.**

**Chapter 25- The M.R.U.N. part 2**

M.R.U.N. ROOMING DISTRICT 1200 HOURS

After awhile of walking (and continuous complaints from Bowser and White Mage, at which point Epsilon just used Psychic on them), they arrived at a large, hotel-like section of the enormous headquarters. The Toad turns to them and hands them card keys. "You can get into your room, and the other facilities in the district like the beach, tennis courts, movie theater, you get the point. You can also use the cards to order room service. President Rose is busy, and needed to push the meeting to 48 hours from now. I shall be by to pick you all up at 1100 hours the day after tomorrow." Peach nodded.

"Thank you. And please give our regards to President Rose." The Toad nodded and exited the quarters via an electronic, sliding door. Peach turns to the rest of the group. "Let's go to our rooms. It looks like we're all on the seventh floor." They walked up to the elevator and began to ride up.

"Just how BIG is this place?!" Flame asked. The others, including Epsilon, Zero and Shadow, laughed.

"I don't know if you guys realize this… but it's huge! In addition to all of this above ground, the headquarters are underground as well. It's where the more vital and important departments have their offices." Epsilon answered.

"How would you know this? Haven't you been in the 10th dimension for the last 7 years?" Epsilon shook his head.

"No. I made frequent visits to this dimension and this building." Bowser turns around.

"Yeah… me and Epsilon have been competing in the Mushroom Wrestling Federation for the last 5 years!"

"That's… interesting…" Ember said, clearly uninterested. The elevator stops and they walk through the hall. Peach stops at the end in front of a large door.

"This is the 'Large Parties' suite. I suppose this would be our room." She turns to a keypad and swipes one of the cards through. The door beeps and opens and they walk through into a large, mansion like family room. Stairs lead upwards to a hallway with several doors.

"AWESOME PAD!" Bowser yells as he jumps on one of the leather couches. The others look at each other and shrug, then break apart into various groups. Doopliss walks over to Bowser, with Pikachu, Shadow, Luigi and Epsilon following. Dragoon, Zero and Gate walk off towards the dining room table. Ember, Flame, White Mage, Cynder, and Peach walk over to another set of couches and sit down. Cynder yawns.

"I'm wiped. I haven't had a good night's sleep since… actually I haven't had one since I was sleeping in that ice wall." Ember turns to her.

"What… have you not been able to sleep the nights we HAVE been at Peach's Castle…?" Cynder shakes her head.

"My sleep has been, well… interrupted by strange dreams…"

"Those 'dreams' wouldn't happen to be those things we saw when Spyro had you pinned down?" Flame asked. Cynder nodded and looked away, yawning again. White Mage cleared her throat.

"Cynder… you look like a red dragon with black spots! Are you going to let me heal you NOW?!" Cynder turned to the others who nodded in unison.

"It's true…" Flame said. Cynder shook her head.

"No… I'm gonna try doing it myself." She said and she quickly touched her back with her right hand, which was now glowing. She flashes white and all the injuries disappear from her body. "Yes! It worked!" White Mage smiled.

"Boy, you're a fast learner! That book really helped!" Cynder nodded.

"Yup… I still don't get why anyone would just _leave_ a book like this here, though." White Mage shrugs. Bowser suddenly runs toward the group.

"That Toad was right! This place _does_ have a movie theatre! With some of the latest movies! Who's up for a movie marathon?" The others jumped up and ran after Bowser, into a dark room.

MEANWHILE…

"(sigh) This sucks… why has all this bad stuff been happening to _me_ lately?" Spyro jumps back onto the windowsill and turns to look back outside when…

"Well, well, so you've returned. It's so much nicer to see you again… now that all traces of Severus are gone from you, oh great gourudzu dzuragan." Spyro turns around and sees Vic in front of him. He jumps of the windowsill and begins circling around Vic.

"What do you mean? I've never met you! And what was that you called me?" Spyro asked, his voice showing slight anger. Vic just laughs.

"No need to be so hasty to think I'm an enemy, dzuragan; I am Vic." Spyro's eyes widened.

"So you're… one of the ancient gods?" Vic nodded. "I still want to know what you called me."

"I called you gold dragon; you and your sister are merely the second and third people I've been able to call by such a name." Spyro raised an eye.

"Who was the first?" He asked, his voice filled with curiosity.

"The legendary dragon, Lord Azeroth; the only creature capable of using Ultima… and both your grandfather and your uncle." Spyro stared at him, thoughts racing through his clearly confused mind.

"But how can he be that at the same time?" Vic chuckled slightly.

"Lord Azeroth had a brother, a younger brother that was always jealous of him. A brother that used a black spell book to increase his power. His brother was Severus." Spyro looks at Vic, shocked. "A good 15,000 years ago, Severus tried to kill Azeroth. The two dueled for hours on end until Azeroth used Ultima to put Severus on the brink of death. But Severus casted one final spell; he sealed his remaining energy inside a crystal, the master dark gem, in hopes that he could recover his strength in there. Azeroth then built a temple of complicated traps and mazes with which to hide the master gem and the Ultima spell. Azeroth was then killed by one of Severus's loyal followers." Spyro's looks at Vic, a number of questions still rushing through his head.

"That still doesn't…" Vic put his finger up, silencing Spyro.

"I didn't finish. Azeroth had a wife, Chinami, and they had a son, your father, Vraël. Technically, when you and your sister's eggs were in the creation process, so to was Vraël transforming into Severus. When you two were born, Severus was your father, making Azeroth, his brother, your uncle." Spyro nodded.

"There's just one last question I want to ask… you claim we've met before… when?" Vic laughed again; this laugh seemed to be darker, and mysterious.

"Spyro… you don't remember? OH! That's right… I wiped your memory of that encounter. You and all your friends forgot about it." Spyro's eyes narrowed and he strolled in front of Vic.

"Well… aren't you gonna tell me?" Vic laughs again.

"Why should I? The knowledge of it… it's best staying in the hands of myself and Tray. Haven't you ever heard that ignorance is bliss, dzuragan? It would be wise not to stick your snout into something like this." Spyro pawed the ground in anger.

"But it is my business! It's MY memory!" Vic laughed yet again.

"Not anymore it isn't… you were a foolish dragon, who was in need of my help." Spyro released a veil of smoke from his nostrils.

"Need your help? Are you trying to play mind games with me, Vic?!" Vic laughs again. "I don't see this as a laughing matter!" Spyro stamped his foot on the ground, Vic's laughter died down to a mere chuckle.

"Well… someone's a little feisty. We wake up on the bad end of the mortal wound-recovery bed?" Spyro unleashes a jet of flames at Vic. "Tsk tsk," Vic began as he tapped Spyro on the back shoulder, unharmed, "remember, a quick wit is often accompanied by quicker reflexes. Well… I've told you what I needed to tell you, I'm off." And with that, Vic vanished into thin air. Spyro hissed and jumped back up on the window sill.

"This sucks. I'm gonna get Severus for this!" Spyro growled, smoke rising out of his nostrils.

LARGE PARTIES SUITE 1600 HOURS

Bowser was standing on one side of a ping pong table, yawning as he hit the small white ball back with ease. White Mage smacks the ball back at Bowser who harmlessly hits it, so that White Mage can't reach it. "21-0… I skunked you again." White Mage sighed.

"I'll never get good at this game!" She tosses the paddle on the table and casually walks over toward the TV.

"Anyone else want to take on the King of Pong!" Dragoon grabbed the paddle.

"Sure… as long as you promise _never_ to use that nickname again." He rolled his eyes and served the ball. Bowser returned it, and Dragoon slammed it down, startling Bowser and winning him the point. "1-0… 'King of Pong'." He tosses the ball up and serves again. The two begin a furious rally that ends in Bowser diving for the ball and hitting it on the back corner of the table. "Hmph… not bad." Dragoon says as he serves the ball, differently this time, so that Bowser ends up hitting it out.

A few minutes later, the score is 21-1. "Nice game, Bowser." Dragoon said as he high fived White Mage. We pan over to Cynder, who's staring out the window.

"It's been raining since noon. When's it gonna stop? I want to go outside!" She pouted and turned to Gate.

"What… you think I'm a weather robot or something? I don't have the forecast, if that's what you're after." Gate said, rolling his eyes. A small light suddenly shines in Cynder's eyes. She turns, a smile forming, as the sun peaks through the thunder heads.

"Alright! The sun is out! But… what should we do?" Bowser walks over to the window.

"Hmm… I know!" Bowser runs through a set of closet doors. Several items fly out of it including a golf club, rubber ducky, toothbrush, pack of a dozen eggs, a doorknob, Flame, a Nintendo Wii, a refrigerator, and a yacht. Cynder dives from the window over to Bowser, who walks out with an oval shaped, brown leather ball in his hands. "These are the perfect conditions for a good old fashion, game of FOOTBALL!" Several people's heads perk up at the mention of football.

"Alright! The Koopa Crusaders haven't played a good tackle football game in awhile." Epsilon sneered. Bowser, Shadow, Zero, Luigi and Epsilon, and Pikachu grouped together.

"So that's your team, huh?" Dragoon said. After talking with the others, the second team of Ember, Flame, Dragoon, Doopliss, Cynder and Gate was formed. Peach and White Mage agreed to be commentators. And with that, they set out for a nearby open field.

M.R.U.N. EXTERIOR 1630 HOURS

The rain had transformed a field of boring grass to a field caked with mud. Clayish in some parts, and watery in others, it transformed the field into a slippery mess of brown gunk. Bowser raised the football in the air. "OH YEAH! Smell that! That's the smell of victory!" Peach and White Mage stood on the sidelines, with headsets on their heads and microphones in their hands. Peach pulled out Bob. The theme of ESPN football began playing

"GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYONE! I'm Peachy Peach Toadstool, your play-by-play woman of the day, joined by my colorful commentator, Anything-but-White Mage!" Peach called out, in a booming voice. White Mage nodded.

"Yes, and what a day it is! I'm ready to trip over my own feet just looking at this playing field, Peachy!" Peach turned back to the audience, composed of a few random M.R.U.N. employees.

"That's right! Today we got those undefeated masters of the pigskin, number one seed, The Koopa Crusaders, led by their captain, Bowser Koopa!" The audience claps and cheer as Bowser chucks the football at Epsilon, who lunges at it and catches it easily. "And their challengers… um… er… Doop Scoop, led by captain Doopliss!" The audience cheered again as Dragoon swallowed a football and launches the football at Flame, who flies into the air and catches it. "Our referee for the day, Damon Darke, has flipped the coin and… The Koopa Crusaders will kick off to start!" Bowser's team lines up on one end of the field, Doopliss's on another. Bowser kicks the ball high into the air. Gate floats up and grabs it, and darts toward the end zone. Bowser charges at him, but Gate levitates over him, as Bowser jumps to tackle him. Gate quickly ducks under a lunging Epsilon and laterals the ball to Dragoon, who dashes past Zero and into the end zone.

"That's a touchdown!" Peach yells.

"Boy, that Dragoon couldn't was burning up the field! Literally!" White Mage comments as she douses the flaming grass with a bucket of mud water. Doopliss head butts the ball and send it toward Epsilon, who charges forward, diving to the side to dodge Gate, who's excellently blocked by Luigi. Epsilon runs straight into Flame, who slams into a giant brown puddle. A large splash ensues, splattering the nearby Pikachu with bits of mud.

"And a nice tackle by Flame… it looks like Bowser's team will start from the 20 yard line!" Flame emerges from the puddle, muddy water dripping from his shivering body.

3 QUARTERS LATER…

"This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen! Doop Scoop are down by 5, and the Koopa Crusaders have the ball on the 5 yard line! It's fourth and goal! 30 seconds left to play!" The crowd (now 10 times bigger) are all on their feet, cheering. "They need an interception to have a sporting chance! Bowser's calling signals… he snaps the ball! Bowser drops back… it looks like he's going to throw. He winds up and… OH MY GOD! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE TACKLE BY CYNDER!" The ball flies out of Bowser's hands and into Cynder's she begins sprinting on all fours at the end zone, Epsilon and Luigi charging in hot pursuit. She jumps over Shadow, who tries to tackle her from the side, and ducks under Zero. With Luigi merely inches away, she dives at the end zone, her wings creased up to speed up her momentum. She lands with a thud in a large pile of clayish mud and slides forward, into a larger, more watery pile. "TOUCHDOWN, DOOP SCOOP! THEY'VE WON THE BALL GAME" Princess Peach yells.

"Peachy, in all my years as a commentator I've NEVER seen a girl hustle like that unless it was for a sale at a mega mall!" White Mage comments, flashing Cynder a thumbs up. Cynder staggers to her feet, brown head to toe from the sticky muck. Her equally messed up teammates run over to her and lift her in the air. Bowser stares at her, shocked.

"Holy macaroni! Did we just lose…?" Luigi pats him on the back.

"I'd sure say so. But you gotta admit, that was a pro-quality blitz right there!" Bowser grunts, thinks and nods.

"Ah, what-the-hey. Let her have her moment." He trots over to the others as the crowd gives them a standing ovation. They trot back off toward their suite. Peach begins speaking again.

"Well, that was certainly something! Until next time, I'm Peachy Peach!"

"And I'm Not-so-White Mage! Join us next time when the Pop Star Piranhas take on the number two seed Toad Town Hoyas! Good day, everybody!"

LARGE PARTIES SUITE 1845 HOURS

They all walk into the suite room, wearing boots so as not to track mud. Ember looks at her body, dripping wet from the muck, and caked brown. "Ugh! Look at me! I look terrible…!" She turns and sees Cynder. "…but not as terrible as you! There's not a trace of black or white left on you!" Cynder shrugs.

"What…? Do you think this place doesn't have showers?" As soon as that was said, Cynder was bowled over by Bowser and Doopliss, who were elbowing each other.

"I SHOT FIRST DIBS!" They said simultaneously. "NO… ME!" Epsilon sighed, beads of sweat sweeping down his forehead, taking bits of mud with them

"You guys… there's plenty of showers here." Epsilon grabs one of the towels and floats off down a corridor. The others shrug and grab their own. Peach and White Mage sit on the couch opposite the television and turn it on.

"Well… that was definitely something else…" White Mage said, sipping a glass of ice water. Peach nods and giggles.

"Still… that was fun!"

"Yeah… I kinda like 'Not-so-White Mage, the _color_ commentator'." Peach laughed again.

MEANWHILE…

"GAH! I gotta get out of here! I'm gonna die of boredom!" Spyro cried, digging his face into a pillow. The door clicked open, and Dr. Lelenthal walked in.

"Well… I think we've cooped you up in here long enough!"

"Where were you all afternoon?" Dr. Lelenthal smiled.

"At an exciting game of football that your friends played. Your sister scored the game-winning touchdown. She gets to keep the game ball, autographed by Flash Johnson, who was watching the game." A small sweat drop rolls down the back of his head. Spyro crosses his arms and sulks.

"This sucks… I missed a game of FOOTBALL in the mud because of a lethal poison in my body!" Dr. Lelenthal patted him on the back.

"Don't worry… there'll be plenty of other opportunities in the future." He handed Spyro a card key. "You can use that to get to your room… I'll lead you there!" He walked out of the room. Spyro quickly smiled.

"Yes! Freedom! It feels so good!" He quickly trotted after Dr. Lelenthal.

LARGE PARTIES SUITE 2000 HOURS

The door clicked open, and Spyro emerged from the hall. "Miss me?" He smiled as Ember, Flame and Cynder ran over to great him. He notices Cynder was holding the game ball Dr. Lelenthal mentioned.

"Oh man!" Flame began, "You missed the BEST game of football ever!" Spyro rolled his eyes.

"Don't remind me! You guys are so lucky. I don't even get a day to relax…" Ember smiled and nudged him.

"Actually, Mr. Rose had to reschedule the meeting for the day AFTER tomorrow. So you DO get a day to relax!" Spyro smiled and pumped his fist in the air.

"EXCELLENT! What are we gonna do?" Peach cleared her throat and spoke up.

"It's supposed to be sunny, beautiful, and 90°! I say we hit the beach!" Bowser ran through the closet doors and came out in a Hawaiian Shirt, sunglasses, a beach hat, and was holding a beach ball and surf board.

"Sweet, man! I'm in!" Epsilon snaps his fingers and a wave of water rushes over Bowser, knocking him into the closet again.

"Wait 12 hours, Big Kahuna. The waves aren't going anywhere." Doopliss looks up from his DS.

"No… but THESE waves are! I love Animal Crossing!" Doopliss went back to his DS as the others laughed.

M.R.U.N. BEACH 0830 HOURS

Bowser is the first one to step out of the convertible he was driving and onto the hot, simmering sand. He glances at the rolling waves. "Awesome! Surf's up!" Bowser grabs his surfboard and runs into the ocean. He manages to stand up but is immediately bowled over by a large wave. He emerges, spitting the water out of his mouth like a spout. "I… I meant to do that!" Peach laughed as she set up an umbrella and laid down a towel, White Mage mimicking said action. Shadow and Doopliss grab surfboards and run after Bowser. The two of them get up and begin riding the wave, Shadow quickly launching off the top, into a 720 while Doopliss stands with the tips of his feet hanging off the front end of the board. Zero claps at the display of tricks as he puts on a pair of sunglasses and begins using his saber to work on a mound of sand, Dragoon helping him with his flames, and Gate with his energy balls.

"What are they making… a sand castle?" Pikachu chimed in, as he swam out and began jumping over waves with Luigi. "Woo! Feel the wavy motion!" Pikachu cries as he's bowled over by a very large wave, which is carrying Bowser in toward them. Ember turned to Epsilon.

"Epsilon… you're still wearing your armor? Do you _ever_ take that stuff off? It must be like an oven in there!" Epsilon smirks and presses a button on the wristwatch he's wearing. A shadowy mist envelopes the battle armor and it disappears into the watch, which fades off his hand. Without his armor, Epsilon looks like an older Spyro. His golden underbelly has several scars on it, but his chest is very broad and muscular. With an incredible bound he leaps into the air and dives into the water, creating a giant wave that rolls over Luigi, Pikachu and Bowser. Ember elbows Cynder in the stomach.

"Just think… that'll be Spyro in 5 years." She whispers. Cynder giggles at the comment, and walks over toward Spyro, who's standing in the water. She walks up beside him.

"So…?" She asks. Spyro rolls his eyes.

"It's… nice… to get a chance to relax!" He said, smiling. Cynder smirked.

"Well you can't relax standing up. Let me _help_ you with that!" Her tail coil under his legs and tripped him up, as he fell into the water with a splash. Cynder laughs and dives under the water. He notices her and begins swimming out to deeper water, Cynder giving chase. She suddenly stops as she seems to have lost him. Suddenly, a purple arm reaches into the water and grabs her arm. Cynder is pulled on top of Shadow's surfboard; the three of them surfing together. Doopliss, Flame and Ember pull up next to them.

"Ready...?" Doopliss yells. Flame looks at him.

"Ready for what? Are you keelhauling us?"

"Nope… ready for this!" The two surfboards leap on top of the wave. Ember screams with delight and Spyro's eyes widen as Shadow turns his board in a 180 and lands back on the wave backwards.

"Turn around!" He called out. Spyro and Cynder nodded and turned around. "Alright… on the count of three… you two jump to Doopliss's board! Ember, Flame, you jumps to my board! 1… 2… 3!" Spyro lunges forward, firmly planting his feet behind Doopliss. Cynder mimics, using her winds to steady her. Ember lands, almost loosing her balance, but Flame lands to far to the edge of the board and the three of them topple over into the drink. They all break through the surface, Spyro and Cynder laughing uncontrollably. In doing this, Spyro looses his footing and topples backwards into Flame, Cynder and Ember now laughing at this. Doopliss launches off the wave and does a 720 before landing and riding the wave back towards Luigi, Pikachu and Epsilon. Cynder dives off the board, into the drink. Her head reemerges, drops of water pouring down her forehead.

"That was so much fun!" She squealed as they ran up onto the beach. Peach had brought out a cooler and Bowser had started up a grill.

"Oh boy! I'm starved!" Doopliss declares. Pikachu nods in unison and pulls out a can of soda from the cooler. They all sit/lie down and begin talking, while Bowser whistles some sort of tune. We cut to a distant shot of this.

"Yes, Spyro, enjoy your time on the beach. And enjoy that meeting with Mr. Rose, because you and I have a little agreement to get to… and soon too. The new world is coming! And I shall be the one ruling it, with you by my side! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

END CHAPTER 25!

**Alright, now it's time to get serious again… back to the storyline!**

Next time, Chapter 26- President Samuel Rose


	27. President Samuel Rose

**Author's Note: Alright… it's time to get back to the main plot. The second half of the dark gems await! Again, I apologize for how long it's taken me, but I've been very busy at school!**

**Chapter 26- President Samuel Rose**

LARGE PARTIES SUITE 1030 HOURS

Flame was collapsed on the couch, snoring louder than the thunder that accompanied the heavy rains the previous night. Spyro and Dragoon are standing in front of him. "He's a real deep sleeper. Almost nothing ever seems to work." Spyro commented, as Dragoon tried speaking close to Flame's head.

"What are we gonna do?" He asked. Spyro though for a moment, but Dragoon interrupted him. "I know! Let's flame him!" He lunged his head back, ready to instigate his power, but Spyro but his had up to Dragoon's mouth.

"Don't bother. We don't need to light the couch on fire over waking up Flame." He walked closer to Flame. "Besides… I've got a better idea!" Spyro lurched his head back, and unleashed a stream of water breath from his mouth. The water poured on Flame for a few seconds, until his eyes bolted open and he lunged at Spyro, knocking the two of them to the ground. Spyro closes his eyes tight as drops of water rain on his eyelids. Flame shook his body off, sending some of the water onto Spyro.

"What was that for?" Spyro pushed Flame off of him and slowly got to his feet.

"I don't know if you realize it, but we have that meeting in 25 minutes, and you didn't want to wake up. Dragoon and I have been at this for 10 minutes!" Flame grabbed a towel from Peach, who'd walked in after hearing the commotion. He mumbled to himself and walked away. Dragoon patted Spyro on the back.

"Well, that went smoothly, wouldn't you say?" Spyro rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, it went perfectly!" He said, trying to make his voice as sarcastic as possible. Dragoon and Peach walked out of the room, and Pikachu and Epsilon now entered. Spyro nodded at them. "What's up?" Epsilon shrugged.

"Nothing much… you?" Pikachu responded. Spyro produced a sly grin.

"Just trying to wake Flame up… always requires so much of that extra effort." Pikachu laughs and Epsilon nods. As the laughter died down, Spyro turned to Epsilon. "You don't think I'm gonna get in trouble with that President Rose guy, do you?" Epsilon scratched his forehead, thinking to himself.

"The way I see it, you're literally only half the size you were when Severus was controlling you. Your underbelly, horns, eyes and spikes were also red instead of gold. You guys haven't been in this dimension long…"

"…and President Rose isn't exactly what we'd call the _brightest_ bulb on the Hanukiah Tree…" Pikachu chimed in, chuckling as he did.

"…yes, that too." Epsilon continued, "Rose will probably not remember you. I'll bet this meeting is just so that he can get up to speed on Severus's evil schemes… although that might mean that he'll try sending out M.R.U.N. spies to investigate the dark gems."

"Right," Spyro responded, as he licked some of the water from Flame off of him, "and the last thing we want is to deal with the M.R.U.N. while we're looking for them. They'll just slow us down." Pikachu tapped Epsilon on the shoulder.

"Don't you think it's always a possibility he might be meeting with us regarding Scrimegour? I mean, dragons arrive in this dimension, and they're not even here 24 hours when Scrimegour is reported dead." He asked. Epsilon took a deep breath in before answering.

"I have not removed such a thought from my mind, but I doubt it. But that also brings up a _third_ possibility; that of Guy's arrival. He claims to come from a third dimension, and from what we can tell he's hid his true identity by dyeing his hair and donning that visor." Pikachu shook his head.

"You really think he dyed his hair?" He asked. Spyro looked at the two of them.

"I know I'm positive he did." He began, "From what I can tell, his hair is not a _natural_ shade of red." Epsilon nodded, grunting in the process.

"Correct. My wristwatch detected a large trace of dye in his hair. Clearly he's keeping something a secret from us."

"And it stinks," Pikachu chimed in, "Because he's been using that to his advantage. His stealthy tactics _must've_ kept him under the radar of the M.R.U.N.!" Just then, the door knocked.

"Well, brother," Spyro said to Epsilon, "We'll find out soon enough." Pikachu walked up to the door and opened it, and sure enough, the Toad was standing there.

"Alright… let's get going guys. President Rose is running ahead of schedule." Epsilon nodded and whistled loudly. The other allies soon appeared from random hallways.

"Is it time to go already, slick?" Doopliss asked, as he turned off his DS. Pikachu nodded.

"Alright… everyone follow me." The Toad motioned to a hallway and they all walked after him.

PRESIDENT'S OFFICE 1200 HOURS

They walked into a very large office. It was quite intimidating, with no windows, cast iron walls (with a hint of scarlet that matched the beautiful carpet), a giant desk with the M.R.U.N. logo painted on the center and a giant computer/television screen behind it. The man seated at it, his head buried in papers, was instantly recognized as the plump man in the red suit talking with Scrimegour during the carnival. "Please," He began, in a cheery, but quite high-pitched and squeaky voice, "have a seat!" He motion to a row of leather chairs arranged in front of him. The allies slowly sank into them, exchanging nervous glances. Both the Toad and Agent Darke were standing guard on either side of the door. They had snipers cradled over the stomachs and a belt of bullets strapped across their chests. Spyro and Gate both gulped, they were clearly the most nervous of the group.

"I understand you wished to see us?" Peach said. President Rose took off a pair of small glasses he was wearing, and puts down the stack of papers. Epsilon turned his attention to a file cabinet, specifically the shelf marked CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION. He stared at it for a long moment with curiosity, then sat back in his chair. We see a brief glimpse of his eyes turning sky blue.

"Yes. That is correct. I feel that it is necessary to inform the citizens of this dimension of the… um… was it, Enigma Project?" He turned his attention toward Gate, who slowly nodded. Epsilon cleared his throat.

"I don't think this is the type of business to get this organization involved in, Samuel." President Rose frowned at Epsilon.

"I feel it is essential for the safety of our planet to construct some sort of evacuation, so as to nullify the Enigma Ray's effect." Epsilon shook his head.

"That action is not recommended. The only escape for these people is into _their_ (he motions at the other dragons) dimension. Sending them to the 10th dimension would kill them all instantly. Besides, we only have to destroy four more dark gems to break the barrier around Gate's Laboratory. And Severus currently doesn't have any access or ways of communication with whatever is currently in the Final Weapon, seeing as we fought him off at the Honiversity." Gate shook his head.

"One hour before I left for Yoshi's Island… I had started sketching a blueprint of a teleporter running on dark gem energy to get to the Final Weapon. The blueprint isn't complete, but I'm sure Severus will use what I have done to construct a running portal. The only way to activate or destroy the Nightmare Ray is with a security code that Severus had to have made; I know he was in my body when I typed in the 2,000 digit code." He said. Epsilon cleared his throat.

"Merely a small problem… we can just have Dr. Nitros build us a device to hack the weapon's mainframe computer and steal the security code." President Rose slammed his fist on the table.

"Listen, dragon," He begin, his voice showing clear signs of disapproval, "I'm trying to run a massive organization here… and I need these facts!" Spyro growled.

"How do you even know about this?" He asked. President Rose produced an evil grin.

"I'm glad you asked that, dragon…" The computer screen behind President Rose blinked on, and the allies were suddenly staring at the battle on Yoshi's Island. "I attached a microscopic camera to Chief Yoshi… and I had all of this footage recorded and beamed directly to me by satellite!" Epsilon frowned.

"Samuel, you're biting off more than you can chew. We're dealing with a crazed madman, brainwashed heroes, a psychopathic red dragon, and a pair of powerful robots…"

"…and one insane dragon." President Rose produced his evil grin as he froze the computer screen on the image of the large purple dragon. Spyro began to sink nervously down the chair. "I must know who this is. He is no doubt the leader of this operation!"

"I guess we forgot to tell him Chief Yoshi fled after Spyro had used that special attack." Pikachu whispered to Luigi. Spyro spoke up.

"Why do you want to know more about him?! We've clearly established that it's _Severus_ leading the operation!" President Rose laughed.

"That's a lie! I've summed it all up in my head. The dragon is trying to trick us by making it look like Severus is behind it… when it truth he's waiting on board this Final Weapon!" Doopliss stood up.

"You can't make an assumption like that without evidence! Show us some evidence then, Mr. President!" President Rose's eyes darted around the room nervously.

"I-I don't know what you m-mean!" He said. Doopliss laughed.

"HA! That's because you don't _have_ any! You're merely surmising this! The only evidence you have is that video footage… and that provides no proof!" President Rose was sinking down onto his desk.

"How dare you… accuse me… of surmising such a powerful accusation!" He slammed his head against his desk. "You all… are a bunch… of little pests… I think… this meeting… is OVER!" President Rose turned away from them. The allies got up and walked out of the room. President Rose began to talk to himself, "Ngh… gah… I almost blew it there. I can't let them stop me! The world mustn't know about this mysterious assassin!" An image of Guy appears on the computer screen over his head.

M.R.U.N. GRAND HALL 1330 HOURS

"Well that went just great!" Shadow exclaimed, hinting the obvious sarcasm in his voice.

"Actually, I got all I needed out of that meeting." Epsilon responded, smirking.

"What? That Mr. Rose wanted to help everyone in case we don't make it?" Ember exclaimed. Epsilon shook his head.

"You're viewing reality right now… you need to look outside the box and view things as an Absolute Reality." He smirked and pulled out a CD labeled "Mysterious assassin footage: DO NOT VIEW". Pikachu gasped.

"You don't think…"

"That this CD is referring to Guy? Of course that's what I think." Epsilon said, "Obviously he feels Guy is a more dangerous threat to his precious organization, and wants to draw attention away from it using his evacuation plan." Bowser's jaw drops.

"How the heck could you figure that out? I can't even remember anything past Rose saying 'have a seat.'!" Ember falls down, anime style. Epsilon just sighs.

"It doesn't matter. The point is we have to stop this before he gets his hands on the kind of technology that would allow him to get everyone into the other dimension. So we have to move fast!" Zero nodded.

"So… where's the next dark gem, then?" He's quickly answered by the sound of a deep voice clearing its throat. The next instance, Dr. Lelenthal walks up to them.

"I'm glad you asked… because our satellite just picked up the location of the last dark gem in the Magical Realms. Although you guys will probably have a very tough time finding it, as it is in the Temple of Azeroth. Such a building is considered a mirage by 99 percent of all creatures living in the Magical Realms. The temple is supposedly charmed so that only the touch of a descendant of the ancient gods can break the spell."

"Do you know where in our home it is?" Cynder asked. Dr. Lelenthal nodded.

"The Forgotten Realms… more specifically, the ancient Soaku Desert. Be careful, the heat there is terrible, and there are no methods of obtaining water while there. But rumor has it that there is a secret oasis inside the temple. So all may not be lost." Epsilon nods.

"Good… then we'll leave right now." The allies gather near Epsilon, except for Gate.

"You're not coming?" Dragoon asks. Gate shakes his head.

"I figure I'll help make the device to hack the Final Weapon's mainframe. Besides, there are plenty of you guys! You should have no trouble with this!" He turns and followed Dr. Lelenthal. Shadow pulls out his Chaos Emerald, and the allies are gone in a flash.

DR. NITROS'S LAB 1335 HOURS

The allies approach the swirling portal. Spyro gulps.

"What's the matter?" Ember asked. Spyro's head drooped.

"You think any of them know what happened? I don't want anyone finding out about everything involving Gate. I'm pretty sure every dragon knows about that fortress!" Spyro slams his hand on the ground. Epsilon rolls his eyes.

"I have a solution. Don't bother speaking. We'll answer all the questions." And with that, they stepped into the portal.

ARTISAN VILLAGE 1340 HOURS

The lake next to the village was twinkling under the hot sun. Several dragons were walking around the village, there seemed to be some news buzzing about. The allies emerge from a wormhole, startling some of the nearby dragons. One of them whispers to the other, and Epsilon is quick to unsheathe his sword. "Perhaps you'd like to say that louder? My friends don't have supersonic hearing!" Spyro instantly recognized one of the dragons as Sam.

"Sam? What's going on?" Sam looked back at him.

"Err… um… nothing! Nothing at all, Spyro…" Epsilon slashes the air in front of Sam.

"You're lying! You know very well that a special meeting was called, regarding some video information that was anonymously sent to the Dragon Realms!" Spyro's eyes begin darting around the area nervously. Ember walked up to Epsilon.

"There's only one place that they could show video information…" Flame and Spyro instantly recognized this and chimed in, "…the Professor's Lab!" Spyro takes off running toward the portal.

"Spyro! Wait!" Shadow yells as they all charge after him.

THE PROFESSOR'S LAB 1400 HOURS

"We thank you all for coming!" begins a small mole in a lab coat, The Professor. "As you know, we were sent video footage regarding an explanation as to recent events that have been happening here! So we're going to playback the information on my computer!" The Professor pulls out a CD and is about to insert it into the tower for his computer when…

"STOP EVERYTHING!" Spyro's voice rings out as he steps through doors. The audience gasps, and a few people stand up. Spyro recognizes them as his other friends.

"Spyro, you're okay! What happened to you?" Bianca asked. "And who are all of these people?" The audience was mumbling to themselves.

"Well…" Flame began, "It's a really long story! And we kind of don't have the time to tell you about it!" Pikachu looks up. 

"Hi, bunny!" He says, smiling. Epsilon quickly shoves Pikachu behind him and steps forward.

"Can I see that disk, please?" Epsilon doesn't wait for The Professor to answer and swipes the disk from his hands. He quickly scans it with his wristwatch. His face creased in anger.

"What is it?" Peach asked.

"Guy," Epsilon growled, "I don't know how he got this kind of footage, considering he wasn't even there for part of it!" Spyro looks at his friends.

"What… why are you all staring at me?"

"Well, if you just barge in here screaming 'STOP EVERYTHING', you obviously know something about this video footage." Responded a taller mole, Blink. Bowser steps in front of Spyro.

"Hey! Quit agitating purple guy over here!" Blink takes a step back, startled by Bowser's enormous size. "Don't worry, dude, I totally got your back…" Suddenly, the sound of gun shot is heard. Spyro's eyes go wide, and he vanishes an instant later.

"SPYRO!" Flame yelled.

"What the heck just happened? Was it Severus, again?" Luigi asked. Epsilon shook his head.

"I highly doubt it! But it could have been one of his thugs!" Suddenly, an explosion sound is heard. The allies run outside only to find two robots there, one a male and the other a female. Zero seems to recognize one of them.

"Hang on a minute… you look like someone I've met before." He begins. His eyes light up with though, "L-Leviathan… no… wait… who are you?" The female robot laughs.

"Such a foolish little Reploid, aren't you?" The male robot laughs, his laugh is a high pitched wail, giving off the impression of pure insanity.

"We've come here to stall you! We're helping out a friend of ours! WAH HA HA HA HA HA HA! This should be fun! I finally get to fight the REAL Zero! WAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" The female looks at her counterpart.

"Are you saying this is THE Zero, Prometheus?" Prometheus does his insane laughter again.

"It's certainly not those annoying Biometal punks Vent or Aile or those other two, Grey and Ashe! This should be a piece of cake!" Prometheus twirls a metal staff around, and a cyber component transforming it into a large scythe. He slashes the air, and a crescent ripples out, knocking the allies to the ground. "WAH HA HA HA HA HA!" He cries as he jumps in the air. The female robot pulls out a magical staff, and twirls it around, disappearing.

"What do we do? What to we do?!" Pikachu cries out frantically. Prometheus suddenly dives out of the sky, slamming his scythe into Cynder, creating an enormous gash. She screeches as he dashes forward, uppercutting Zero with his scythe. He then jumps into the air, spinning his scythe around and whacking Luigi and Flame. The female robot appears and streams of electricity out of her staff. They begin snaking around the field, striking Shadow, Doopliss, and Zero. One of the blasts heads for Dragoon and he deflects it by transforming into his flame snake. He flies at the female robot, but she spins her staff around and disappears. Prometheus dives from above, and black fireballs fly out hitting Ember, Zero, Cynder and Epsilon. He then reappears in the middle. Two giant walls of fire appear on either side of him and begin circling around the field, sweeping up Pikachu, Zero. Peach ducks under her trademark Parasol and the attack harmlessly bounces off her. Zero jumps into the air and slashes Prometheus with his saber. The attack hits, and Prometheus flashes white and disappears.

The female robot appears next to Cynder's unconscious body. "Aisu kasaru!" She calls out as she spins her staff around. A giant ice statue appears and begins bouncing around the arena. She disappears as Dragoon shoots a few fireballs at her. The statue crashes into Flame, knocking him into Ember.

"These guys work too well as a team! How the heck are we supposed to defeat them?" He cries as he's struck by Prometheus's scythe dive. Prometheus dashes forward and tries to uppercut Luigi, but Luigi super jumps into the air and ground pounds Prometheus as he twirls upward in his scythe tornado. The female reappears and turns her staff sideways. A horizontal wall of pure electricity rips out from below her and slams down into the field, hurting all of the allies. Prometheus reappears.

"WAH HA HA HA HA! This is pathetic! Wouldn't you say, Pandora?" Pandora smiles.

"This is true. We are obviously too quick for you weaklings!" Prometheus laughs again as Pandora disappears. Prometheus begins another scythe dive. This time, he his in the back by a shot from Zero's Z-Buster. He dives into the ground, missing Doopliss, who waves around his Leaf Umbrella. As Prometheus dashes at White Mage, who whacks him with her mallet, Doopliss opens up the umbrella, unleashing a beam of energy. Peach then whacks Prometheus with her parasol as he scythe tornadoes into Flame and Epsilon. Pandora reappears and thrusts her arms out. Two long serpents made of ice appear and begin spiraling around the field. Only Shadow and Pikachu manage to expertly dodge them. Bowser jumps into the air and tries a Bowser Bomb, but Pandora disappears again.

"GRAH! Stop disappearing and fight like a man!" Pandora reappears in the air and fires out more streams of electricity, several of which hit Bowser.

"I'm a girl, smart one." She says as she disappears again. Prometheus appears in the middle of the field. Four black fireballs shoot out around him, and begin shooting out at the others. Epsilon arches his back forward to dodge one, and then shoots a blast of lightning from his hands at Prometheus, which is deflected by a green, electrical barrier, because Pandora is now in the middle of the field instead. She conjures up 5 more barriers, and they begin spinning around the field. One of the barriers gets Epsilon, knocking him into Flame.

"I can't take much more of this! We're dealing a small amount of damage to Prometheus, but Pandora is avoiding our attacks so easily!" Flame cries as he dodges another of Pandora's ice sculptures, which flattens Dragoon. "Spyro… where the heck are you?"

MEANWHILE…

Spyro appears in the middle of a room. It looks quite old, as the walls are covered in moss and ancient text. In the middle of the room is a podium. A giant, black crystal is implanted in it, a black aura swirling around it. It bares the ancient mark in the center of it. At that moment, a glowing red light emanates from the other side. "Welcome, Spyro!" Spyro walks around to find Guy, standing next to the crystal. Spyro bows.

"Our diversion at The Professor's lab worked marvelously, master." Guy smiles.

"Good, now we must get down to business. I don't trust Prometheus and Pandora alone with our enemies." Guy turns to the crystal. "Take a good look at it, Spyro. Your father's spirit is trapped inside this crystal… what was once Severus's prison is about to become his undoing."

"So that's… the Master Dark Gem?" Guy nodded, his small evil grin reflected on all of the room's walls by the gem. "I don't get it… how would breaking this kill Severus?" Guy chuckled.

"Spyro… this crystal was just an ordinary crystal. But Severus wanted power… to rule… to kill his older brother… and the only way he could do that, was using a powerful ancient technique that no one tries; ripping out ones heart. It's a magical process that can only be done using a crystal like this one. All Severus would have to do is kill one of the descendants of Vic and Tray, then he'd use that creature's magical energy to sever his heart and trap it in the gem. He would gain power, but without a heart, he would become a monster."

"So the name Severus, he got it because he 'severed' his heart?" Spyro asked; his dark voice filled with curiosity. Guy nodded.

"Azeroth had been taught that a creature that did this could only live as long as the gem was intact. When he was on the verge of death, and trapped Severus, he did it in his own gem, hoping someone would break it and destroy Severus. Well, that didn't happen now, did it?" Spyro shook his head. Guy smiled, "alright… I want you to hold on to the gem."

"But how can I keep something so large, master?"

"It doesn't have to be this large." Guy answered. He pointed his staff at the gem and yelled, "shurinku!" The gem glowed and instantly shrunk to the size of Spyro's hand. The dragon picked up the gem and pocketed it.

"What do you wish for me to do with it, master?" Guy smiled.

"When the time to destroy it is right, I will summon you again." And with that Guy vanished. Seconds later, Spyro finds his environment swirling around him and he's suddenly standing in…

THE PROFESSOR'S LAB 1600 HOURS

"Huh?! Wha…? Where am I?" Blink turns and sees Spyro.

"Spyro! How the…? But you…? You vanished!" Spyro looked at Blink.

"I did?"

"Of course you did, how could you forget! Your eyes went wide, and then, POOF, you're gone!" Spyro shakes his head.

"Listen, that doesn't matter. Where are my friends?"

"You mean those crazy guys?" Hunter chimed in, "they're out there getting their butts kicked by two robots." Spyro's eyes went wide.

"W…. WHAT?! I've gotta help them!" Spyro shoves his way through the crowd, and emerges onto the field. Ember turns and spots him.

"S-Spyro?! How the… SPYRO! WATCH OUT!" Spyro is quickly struck by a scythe dive from Prometheus. He dashes forward, but Spyro strikes him in the back with a bolt of electricity from his hand. Prometheus scythe tornadoes into the air, dodging a Raijingeki attack from Zero, and hitting Luigi and White Mage in the process. Pandora appears in the middle of field and conjures 8 barriers, which fly out and hit Bowser, Flame, Ember, White Mage, Shadow, Doopliss, and Zero.

"These guys are tough!" Spyro cries as he ducks under a barrier and shoots a white fireball at Pandora, who disappears, dodging it.

END CHAPTER 26!

**Can the allies defeat these strange new robots? Find out next chapter!**

Next time, Chapter 27- When Dragons Collide


	28. When Dragons Collide

**Author's Note: Alright, here's the next chapter! Also, the shenanigans joke you'll find about halfway through the chapter is actually from a comedy television show (I forget the name). I do not own it… so please don't sue me! Again, I apologize for the time spent on these. The chapters have been getting longer word-wise. **

**Chapter 27- When Dragons Collide **

Pandora appears in the center of the field and shoots out four ice diamonds. The diamonds begin shooting ice shards at the allies as Pandora vanishes once again. "Anyone got any bright ideas on how to beat them?" Zero asks, jumping over and ice shard and slashing the diamond, breaking it. Flame glides to the side and shoots a fireball at Prometheus, who dives down from the sky. He collides with the ground and black flames explode everywhere, hitting Ember and Pikachu. Prometheus scythe dives into Shadow and uppercuts the air as he's hit by a rebound attack. Prometheus then slashes his scythe forward, creating a large energy crescent which careens into Dragoon. Prometheus scythe tornadoes into the air, hitting Epsilon and getting hit by a fireball from Ember.

Pandora appears in the middle of the arena. "It's time to finish this!" She yells as she spins her staff around. Instantly, four giant energy beams fly out of the staff careening into several of the allies. The beams begin rotating around the field, increasing speed as they run into Epsilon, Zero and Ember. Spyro jumps and flies over one, then begins flying away from a second, incoming beam. Pandora finally retracts the beams and conjures another ice statue. Spyro can tell that the statue is an ice snowman, with the top section having a face. She slashes the sculpture and the bottom section begins spinning around the field, the face bouncing on top of it. Spyro is hit square in the gut by the head and plummets to the ground, gasping for air. "This is pathetic." Pandora exclaims as she floats above the allies, all laying unconscious. Prometheus reappears.

"WAH HA HA HA HA HA HA! We did it! They have fallen to our mighty power!" He yells; his face a twisted mess of crazed emotions.

"We must hurry to the temple, Prometheus." Pandora begins, "they're sure to head there… and we're supposed to be the welcome wagon!" She laughs and twirls her staff around, disappearing. Prometheus does his insane laugh once more, before leaping into the air.

NESTOR'S HOUSE, 2000 HOURS

Cynder twitches in the bed she's lying in. She then bolts upright, hissing. She stops as she notices where she is. "Huh? I'm in Nestor's house?" She began, "how did I get here? I remember fighting those two weird robots…"

"You mean Pandora and Prometheus…? They beat us, and got away." Responded an irritated voice. Cynder beamed as she recognized the voice as Spyro's.

"SPYRO! You're okay! We were so worried!" A second voice laughed at this statement. Cynder recognized it as Luigi.

"He returned just in time to get his butt kicked around with the rest of ours. The two made a powerful team. Pandora's magic, Prometheus's physical strength and agility… and not to mention the fact that they kept disappearing after they did their attacks." Luigi said, as he bit into a piece of bread. Cynder shrugged.

"Well… we can't get caught up in the past. We have to go destroy that dark gem, even if we encounter the two of them again."

"Still…" Luigi began, "it's strange that the two of them would just appear there like that. I doubt that they're the type to work for Severus; they could easily overpower him! But I just can't shake the feeling that someone sent them to stall us." Spyro looked at him.

"Well… I can't think of anyone else who would want to stall us except Severus, so he can get that teleporter up and running." Cynder nodded in unison with his comment. At that moment, Peach walked in the room.

"Oh, good! You're awake! Now we can leave for the temple!" Cynder rolls out of the bed and stretched.

"Ah!" She cries.

"What's the matter?" Spyro asks.

"I'm just sore. It's no big deal." She nods and the two trot out the door after Luigi and Peach.

SOAKU DESERT, 2230 HOURS

Bowser puts his arm up over his face, deflecting the harsh desert winds from blowing against it. He yells something at the others, but it's muffled up by his arm. Luigi turns around, his cap shielding his face. "WHAT?!" He cried. Bowser mumbles again. "For Pete's sake Bowser, take your arm off your face for one second!" Bowser lifts his arm up from his snout.

"I said… HOW MUCH FUR…" But he instantly breaks down into a series of violent coughs and wheezes. He grabs his canteen and takes a quick sip from it. Further ahead, Spyro is digging his claws in the ground, as the harsh wind attempts to lift him into the air. Epsilon is now carrying Pikachu, who is the lightest of the group. Peach is shielding both herself and White Mage with her parasol. Ember, Flame and Cynder are slowly advancing forward.

"This is horrible!" Ember cries, spitting a mouthful of sand out onto the ground. Suddenly, as she picks her right paw up to take a step, she's rocketed backwards by the wind. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ember cries. Flame quickly shoots his hand forward, grabbing Ember's tail. "Ow! OW! What are you doing?!" She cries, the howling of the wind masking her screams.

"Saving your life!" Flame cries back as he pulls Ember back toward her. She lets out a sigh of relief. Zero steps in front of them, using his Guard Shell ability to deflect the wind.

"Stay behind me!" He yells as he plants his right foot forward, taking a step. Flame and Ember mimic the action. They hear voices calling from ahead of them.

"I found it! I found it, guys!" They slowly creep ahead to the source of the noise, Cynder and Dragoon. The others turn and creep over to them. They're standing in the rim of what looks like a cave.

"This is it?" Flame asked. "It's just a cave!" Cynder smiled.

"And that's where you're wrong!" She blew a small bit of flames against the wall, and Flame was able to make out a few strange markings and symbols carved into it.

"What is it?" He asked, his curiosity aroused.

"Ancient symbols," Cynder responded as Bowser, the last of the allies, collapsed on the cave floor.

"Ugh… remind me to buy a treadmill once this is all over." He groaned. Epsilon pulled out Bob and pressed a button. A small flashlight appeared out of the end of the phone. He shined it against the wall, looking at the symbols.

"Hmmm… 'Beware! Any entering this sacred place seeking power could be lost in time forever'." He moved the flashlight below the symbols and the light revealed a skeleton; decayed and eroded with moss growing on it. Ember winces slightly at the sight and Bowser screams like a girl and faints. Shadow just rolls his eyes.

"Well…" Spyro said, "We should get going. We can't just stop here. We have to keep going if we want to reach the dark gem before dawn." He grabs the flashlight from Epsilon's paws and starts walking forward, the others following. Bowser groans and brings up the rear of the group, White Mage dragging him along the ground.

2 HOURS LATER…

"Where are we?" Pikachu asked as they walked into a hallway lit by torches. Dragoon stares at them out of curiosity.

"Odd… why would there be lit torches in a place like this?" Shadow folds his arms.

"If you ask me… it's a typical 'mysterious temple' cliché." He said as he walked toward the front of the group. Doopliss, who was actually not playing his DS for once, walked in front of a torch butt that wasn't lit.

"Odd… why is this one not lit…" He reaches out to grab the torch, when it pulls downward like a handle. A trapdoor opens up under Doopliss and he screams as he grabs a hold of the edge. "Uh… a little help here, slick?" He yelled up to Luigi. Luigi nodded and extended his arm forward; grabbing Doopliss by his shoe and yanks him upward. Doopliss lets out a sigh, "Whew! You saved my bacon there, slick!" He pats Luigi on the back and walks back toward the others. Luigi shrugs and follows.

"Where were you two?" Cynder asked when they caught up.

"Booby traps. I guess curiosity almost killed the Doopliss!" Doopliss answered. She rolls her eyes and in doing so, steps on a vine growing on the floor. The vine snaps and the room suddenly begins rumbling.

"What did you do?!" Epsilon growled.

"Another booby trap!" Doopliss yelled as the rumbling stopped. The sound is soon replaced by that of a rolling object, and it's getting louder. "OH CRAP! Run for your lives!" Doopliss sprints ahead as a giant boulder follows the allies. The hallway suddenly turns into a downwards ramp and the boulder begins to pick up speed. In an effort to save himself, Doopliss jumps up on top of the boulder and begins running on top of it. "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA! NA NA KATAMARI DAMACHI!" he sings as the boulder flattens all the allies except for Spyro and Epsilon and shoot blasts of lightning at the boulder, blowing it up. Doopliss floats down to them. "Well, it's nice to know we emerged from that without a scratch!"

"Easy for you to say!" White Mage yelled as she healed the others. They all stagger to their feet and walk down to Spyro, Epsilon and Doopliss.

"Of all the days to forget my bottle of Advil…" Pikachu groans, rubbing his head.

"Curses! The Katamari has outsmarted me again!" Bowser yells, as Ember falls down, anime style. Peach dusts herself off, and then speaks to the others.

"Enough shenanigans! Let's get a move one!" Bowser pouts.

"But I like shenanigans!" He cries.

"Yeah! Bowser's shenanigans are fun and wacky." Pikachu exclaims.

"Really… I think his shenanigans are cruel and unusual." Shadow retaliates.

"But… that wouldn't make them shenanigans at all!" Pikachu cries. Epsilon pushes the two of them down the hallway.

"I swear to GOD I'll pistol-whip the next guy that says 'shenanigans'!" Bowser begins to open his mouth but Epsilon blasts him with a jet of blue flames. "Don't even think about it!" The others walk off, laughing hysterically.

1.5 HOURS OF MAZE-NAVIGATING LATER…

"How much further do we have to go?!" Bowser yells as he drinks the last of his water. Epsilon pauses in front of two doorways. His eyes quickly widen. He turns to Cynder and whispers to her. She nods and turns to the others.

"We found the oasis guys! It's right over there!" Cynder motions to the door on her left and is stampeded by the others. She lets out a sigh of relief and turns to Epsilon. They walk through the doorway on their right and emerge in a small room. The walls are coated with moss and vegetation, but a pedestal can be seen atop a platform in the center of the room. They walk up to it. A shimmering crystal is floating atop the platform, exerting radiant beams of red and black energy. Below it is a small sign which Epsilon translates.

"Congratulations! You have truly showed the characteristics of a being worthy of the divine power! Your knowledge and judgment has navigated you to this point, while your strength has helped you overcome obstacles. Sealed within this crystal is the "spell of wrath", Ultima. To utilize this spell, one must have the judgment to decide on the proper time to use it, and the strength to endure that massive amount of energy that must be drained from one's body to cast the spell. As long as one has this crystal, they may cast such a spell, but beware of how much energy you put into it. It could be the difference between life or death." They stare at each other, and then at the crystal. "Well… what are you waiting for…?" Epsilon asked, "take it."

"A-a-are you sure? Maybe you should have it? After all… you're more powerful!" Cynder responds hesitantly. Epsilon smiled slightly.

"That's quite a complement. But I can assure you that you can utilize this spell to a far greater potential than I. Go on…" Epsilon motions for her to take it. She looks at the crystal, then Epsilon, and then the crystal again; she slowly extends her hand forward and swipes the gem. The room flashes white and Cynder screams, then everything returns to normal.

"That was it? I… I was expecting… more flashing lights and pain." She remarked, pocketing the crystal as the two left the room and joined the others in the oasis.

"Where were you two?" Spyro asked. Cynder opened her mouth to lie, but Epsilon put a hand up to it and spoke.

"We just walked a little further to try and fine the room with dark gem." He responded, his voice relaxed, despite lying.

"Well… I refilled your canteens for you!" He said, extending them forward. Cynder thanked him and took it, walking toward the others. "So… did you find the dark gem?" Spyro asked when Cynder was out of hearing range. Epsilon shook his head.

"I think it's in the room through that door." Epsilon points to another doorway at the other end of the oasis room. We pan over to Ember and Bowser, who both look as if they're about to compete for something.

"Alright… let me get this straight…" Bowser begins, "you think you can hold your breath longer than _me _underwater? And if you do… I have to eat a piece of moss from this rock (he motions to a moss covered rock). But if _I_ win, you'll carry me on your back for the ENTIRE remainder of our trek through this temple?" Ember nods. "GRA HA HA! You're SO on!" The two glare at each other and jump under the water, their mouths sealed shut. The others are watching with obvious interest. For a good two minutes, not a single one of them stirred. Then, the larger blurry figure, Bowser, began to squirm around slightly, using his hands to keep himself underwater. Ember smirks as a jet of air bubbles fly out of Bowser's mouth and he rockets up to the surface. "DAMMIT!" He yells, stomping his foot, as Ember emerges from the water.

"Well… a deal's a deal! I hope you're hungry." She smiled as she pulled a chunk of green moss off of the rock. Bowser grabs it, glared at her, and tosses it in his mouth. He chews on it for awhile, his face twisted in a thoughtful expression.

"Say…" He begins as he swallows the moss, "This is… pretty good!" Bowser grabs another handful of moss and begins biting into it. The others fall down anime style, Shadow included, as Spyro and Epsilon rejoin them.

"Bob is picking up strong signals of dark gem energy from that room!" Spyro exclaims, beaming. "Let's get a move on so we can get out of here!" The others nod and follow the two purple dragons, Bowser still happily gnawing at the patch of moss.

CENTER CHAMBER, AZEROTH TEMPLE 0300 HOURS

They walk into an enormous circular room. The brick walls are decorated with crimson and gold tapestry, depicting the same picture as Spyro, Cynder and Epsilon's tattoos, only this one has a large "A" embedded over it; most likely standing for "Azeroth". There are several, castle like towers in the room, all draped with the same tapestry. "Look!" Pikachu says as he points to a staircase leading up to a raised platform, with the dark gem seated atop it, shimmering in the torchlight. Shadow pulls out his rifle and aims it at the gem.

"What are you doing, slick?" Doopliss asked.

"Seeing as every time someone waltzes up to the gem, a hoard of enemies appear, I thought I'd try a different approach!" He pulls the trigger and fires a shot. It spirals toward the dark gem, but then bounces harmlessly off it and spirals into a tower. "What the…?"

"My, my… someone's a little hasty today, huh? What's the matter, you got a date or something?" Pandora glides down over the dark gem. Spyro hunches low and growls at his opponent.

"Grrr…. You! How did you guys get here?"

"WAH HA HA HA!" Screams Prometheus as dives onto the platform, "Boy, you guys sure bounce back pretty fast! Especially considering that royal, world-class beating we gave to you!"

"Last time was just a fluke!" Cynder growled. Pandora laughs.

"Ha! We were just getting warmed up. This time, we'll really knock the living daylights out of you!" The allies assume fighting stances, when a giant fireball strikes them all from above.

"Yes, YES! What emotion you're all showing! It's magnificent! This would make a great movie!" Guy slowly descends onto the platform.

"WHAT?! How'd you get here?" Bowser asks.

"What does it matter? For all you know, I could've just teleported here! But that's not the point. You idiots are being nothing but a thorn in my side! It would all be much simpler with you all out of the way."

"What are you saying…?" Epsilon growls.

"I'm saying that it's time to finish you all off, once and for all!" Guy snaps his fingers. In a bright flash of white light, six familiar dragons appear in front of him. Spyro's growl becomes even deeper.

"Zane…" An evil grin forms on Zane's face.

"Well, well, well, looks like old Spyro's finally come back to you guys! Congrats! But this is where we end it for you!" Cynder laughs.

"Give me a break! We'll beat you guys, easily?"

"Oh?" Guy chimes in, "you think you'll win? Well I'd have to agree with that statement." The allies stare at Guy in shock, "which is exactly why I had Pandora and Prometheus dig THESE up!" Guy opens his other hand revealing six, badge-like metals.

"What are they?" Bowser asks, his eyes fixed on the shiny metals.

"Biometals!" Prometheus answers, "They meld with the user, transforming them into a robot capable of great power! WAH HA HA HA HA HA!"

"Wait… those Biometals… they'll make us stronger?" Alicia asks, fixated on Guy's smiling face.

"Exactly… AND NOW!" Guy throws the Biometals at the dragons. They catch them and the entire room flashes a bright, white color. The light gets brighter and brighter, and the allies can make out both the other dragons screaming and Prometheus's insane laughter.

"What's going on?" Zero asks as the lights begin to die out. When they do, the six dragons have transformed into robot-like creatures. Zero's eyes widen. "Wait! I recognize those! That's Harpuria (he points to Zane), Fefnir (he points to Thorn), Phantom (he points to Frieze), Leviathan (he points to Alix), X (he points to Eliza), and… OMEGA (he points to Alicia)! Oh god we're SO screwed!"

"Why does Alicia look EXACTLY like you?" Cynder asks, her voice showing signs of worry. Guy laughs.

"What does it matter, little girl? The point is that I shall pick you off in two groups… starting…" Guy slams his staff on the ground. Bubble shields appear over all the allies except the five dragons, "with you five! You're obviously the strongest ones… so I'm ridding myself of you early! Pandora, Prometheus, you five… take care of them!" Guy leaps into the air, Prometheus and the six dragons follow. Pandora spins her staff around and disappears.

"Oh great! Not again!" Cynder yells. She is suddenly tackled by Epsilon, who narrowly avoids a scythe dive by Prometheus. Prometheus charges forward, uppercutting Flame with his scythe. He charges forward again, slashing his scythe and creating an energy crescent which Spyro doges with ease. Spyro follows up by slamming his arms, legs and horns into Prometheus, who simultaneously performs his scythe tornado attack. Spyro bounces of Prometheus and collides into the wall. Guy appears and shoots five fireballs, which float around him. He slams his staff on the ground and the fireballs arc forward. Ember, who can't dodge it, counters with her own flame breath, and delivers a powerful diving kick to Guy, who teleports away after getting hit. A blast of purple lightning suddenly hits Ember, and Zane descends into the arena. Two purple sabers appear out of his hands and he slashes the air, shooting energy crescents at Spyro and Epsilon. They fly over the crescents but Zane rams them at a blazing fast speed. Epsilon careens into Thorn, who shoots him with a blast from his double-barrel gun. Thorn then slams the ground with his fist, which is glowing white. A shockwave of energy ripples out, hitting Cynder and Flame. Cynder tries to retaliate by casting Thunder, but Thorn quickly jumps into the air. Pandora appears and creates an ice snowman, which begins bouncing around the arena as Pandora vanishes again. Flame rolls to the side, dodging it, but runs straight into Prometheus, who dives from the sky and explodes on the ground, launching black flames everywhere. Spyro gets hit by one in the back and screams as he's burned by the flames.

Frieze appears in the center of the room and begins shooting small, lightning fast daggers from his hands. Epsilon quickly teleports behind Frieze and unleashes a special Earth Breath, shaped like a mace. He slams it into Frieze repeatedly, as Cynder is struck in the side by several of the daggers. She roars as the sharp blades penetrate her scales. Frieze disappears and Alicia appears in his place. Her hand glows as she slams the ground. A barrier of white energy envelopes her, electrocuting Epsilon, and she follows up by jumping into the air and spinning her purple saber around, sending small crescents of energy in all directs. Flame easily dodges them and collides with Alicia in midair. She teleports away and Guy delivers a powerful elbowing to Flame's head, followed by a blast of lightning from his scepter. He quickly thrusts the weapon backwards, creating a forcefield which electrocutes Spyro, who attempted to attack him. Guy teleports away and Prometheus appears floating in the center of the arena. Black flames fly out around him and begin shooting smaller black flames at the allies. Cynder quickly lunges to the side to dodge one, while Ember jumps in front of her and uses her flame breath to try and deflect it. But the small flames prove powerful and go right through her flame breath, burning her. Prometheus disappears again and Alix appears next to Flame. She brutally slashes him with her halberd and then spins it around like a magical staff. Several crystals fly out in all directions. One hits Spyro and incases him in a solid block of ice. The other crystals land on the ground and form ice shards, which fly at the allies. Flame uses his own fire breath to deflect the ice shards back at Alix, who's hit by them and teleports away.

"Silly child," says Pandora as she slams down onto him with her staff. A wall of electric energy balls fly out, smacking into Epsilon and Ember. The attack breaks the ice around Spyro. Eliza appears next and begins firing snakes of fire from her X-Buster at the allies. Epsilon and Spyro send the attack back at her with their own white flames. Zane quickly dives into them, a speeding blue blur. He raises he sabers and purple lightning fires down into the room. Spyro is hit in the wind and screams as the electricity burns him. Frieze appears next and produces four shurikens, which begin spinning around the arena. Cynder tries to jump over one of them, but she gets nicked in the tail. Frieze begins making hand signals and suddenly vanishes. Five Friezes reappear in his place and all throw out daggers. The dragons are overwhelmed by the attack, Epsilon struggling to keep a barrier around himself. His barrier shatters and he's pelted with daggers. Pandora reappears in the center of the room. She conjures up three large ice serpents and they begin chasing after the dragons. Cynder casts Fire, destroying one of them, while Ember and Flame combine their flame breaths to destroy another. Pandora then spins her staff around, and four giant energy beams fly out of it, and begin circling around the room, hitting the dragons. Spyro manages to put a Sapphire Barrier around himself and Cynder. Pandora disappears again, as Prometheus scythe dives into Spyro, he uppercuts him, then hits him with an energy crescent, than scythe tornadoes him. As Spyro plummets to the ground, Guy, Alicia and Eliza appear and fire out monstrous blasts of energy from their weapons. Zane appears and attacks him with purple lightning, Thorn uses his double barrel blaster, Frieze chucks a shuriken at him, Alix fires crystals at him, Prometheus uses his black flames, and Pandora fires out streams of electricity. The attacks all collide at the same time, blowing up one of the towers and sending rubble blasting in all directions.

"NO! SPYRO!" Ember yelled as the smoke cleared. Guy and his partners are all floating above the smoking pile of rubble that was previously a castle tower.

"I think that shut him up for good!" Zane commented, laughing.

"WAH HA HA HA! I don't think your little friend is gonna be standing up after that attack!" yelled Prometheus. His laughter was quickly drained, as a massive stream of black flames struck all but Pandora, who quickly teleported above the flames. Cynder dived through the bad guys, landing next to the crater.

"You…! How could you do such a thing?" She growled as Guy just stared back at her.

"Simple… I have no heart when it comes to this. I'm an assassin; it's my job to cause destruction. It just so happens that you are all interfering with a little scheme I've got going." He chuckled at his own comments, "I kill for the power! For the fear it strikes into the hearts of others! I have no compassion! I frown upon such REDICULOUS _emotions_! Such things only make a person weaker!" He spat at her, her face a confused mixture of anger and pain. Zane laughed at this.

"Oh this is just priceless! What is he, your boyfriend or something?! Give me a break!"

"Man… what's the matter, Spyro? Did your little brainwashing incident turn you into a wimp?" Thorn cried, laughing hysterically. Alicia shook her head.

"Oh come on… you gotta give him SOME credit…" Thorn stared at her, she just smirked, "credit for being such an easy target! I've never seen something as easy to hit as a mere sheep!" They all laughed, continuing to spit out insults in the process. Even Guy and Pandora were chuckling slightly at the insults. Cynder's growling began to get deeper and more threatening. Alix turned to her.

"Oh no! The little black dragon is getting angry! What… is the little baby going to cry on me?" Cynder's eyes widened.

"Don't… you… ever… call… me… a…" The laughter of the bad guys abruptly stopped. "…_**BABY!**_" She roared and her entire body flared up in a blast of golden flames. She emerges from the explosion, gold head to toe, and began to attack the bad guys with a storm of powerful golden energy balls. She cupped her hands together and then fired out an enormous golden beam. With the aura of golden flames around her body now twice as big as her she hovered in the air as electrical energy began to gather in her hands. She slammed her arms apart, and bursts of lightning rained down on her enemies. She followed with a circular wall of pure electrical energy.

"HOLY MACAROLE!" Bowser yelled in astonishment.

"Is that another one of those fury attacks she'd told us about?" Flame asked Ember. Epsilon nodded, overhearing them. The other dragons began flashing white.

"Gold…. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!" Zane yelled as his robot armor exploded, along with that of his counterparts. The entire room flashed white, and then back to normal. Zane and the other dragons were lying in a heap on the ground. Cynder turned to Guy, whose visor was exerting massive amounts of steam again. She unleashed a ferocious roar in his direction. Flustered, he slammed his staff on the ground, disappearing with his two counterparts. Cynder floated back to the ground, her scale and eye color fading back to normal. The forcefields around the other allies break.

"That… that was incredible!" White Mage yelled out, enthusiastically. Cynder blushed slightly.

"R-really… I didn't even know that I was doing it… I mean… I was GOLD… just like Spyro." She quickly put her hand up to her mouth in shock and ran over to the pile of rubble. She and Bowser dragged some of the larger pieces off of the pile, and Cynder pulled Spyro out by his tail, as he began to come to.

"C-Cynder… did you just…"

"Wait… you know?!" White Mage and Cynder respond, simultaneously. Spyro slowly staggered to his feet.

"I felt this sudden burst of power. It lasted for about a minute, and then died down. I guess we must be able to sense this power present in each other… or something like that." Bowser walked over to the others.

"Well… that little spectacle did a number on the dark gem! So we're done here!" Pikachu runs over to them next.

"Guys! Guys! There's a rope ladder over there leading out of the temple! We don't have to navigate our way out!" Spyro let out a sigh of relief.

"That's great… really great…" He remarked.

END CHAPTER 27!

**Things are looking up for the allies with only three dark gems to go! What happens next? You'll have to keep reading to find out!**

Next time, Chapter 28- Out of Earth, Past the Stars


	29. Out of Earth, Past the Stars

**Author's Notes: It's only 8 days until The Eternal Night is out for the Nintendo Wii and I've already pre-ordered it. As you can tell from reading this, there have been some minor spoilers regarding new moves in the game (but nothing put it that wasn't in the Gameplay Trailer). These next few chapters, however, will contain some plot-related spoilers for a section of the Eternal Night. However they have both appeared in the trailer and a game clip on Gamespot/YoutTube. Anyway, here's the next chapter! Just a friendly reminder that the intake of too much salad dressing could be harmful for your stomach. Just ask Spyro!**

**Chapter 28- Out of Earth, Past the Stars**

PEACH'S CASTLE, 0730 HOURS

The allies were practically on the verge of sleep. It was the kind of sleep that almost sneaks up on you when you least expect it, a predator stalking in the tall grass. The kind of sleeps that tries to overpower you, trying to coax you into the void of dreams. But the allies forced themselves to pay attention to Dr. Lelenthal. "I got word from Kirby of a big black crystal that has appeared on Popstar. Additionally, a giant arena appeared around it, and now a robotic peacock is using the gems power to pit the citizens of Popstar and the surrounding stars against each other, in a show called Galactic Showdown!"

"Cyber Peacock… up to his old media-based tricks again!" Zero exclaimed, slamming his fist down.

"Peacock? Man… I haven't seen him in awhile!" Dragoon exclaimed. Spyro groaned.

"A fighting arena?!" He slumped his head down against the couch's armrest and groaned. Dr. Lelenthal nodded.

"It's terrible! Peacock is turning anyone who loses, becomes too fatigued to continue fighting, or just plain refuses to fight into a nightmare, using a computer program he developed! If you guys don't hurry, the entire planet could add to Severus's army!"

"Then what are we sitting around here for?! Let's go!" cried Ember. Epsilon grabbed her arm and pulled her down.

"It's not that simple… Popstar is a completely different planet. We have to get a rocket ship that'll take us there!" Dr. Lelenthal cleared his throat.

"Lucky for you guys, several weeks ago I finished a rocket designed to look like a fighter jet. I call it the Space Ranger X. The only problem is… I don't have rocket fuel for it."

"WHAT?! How does a mad scientist NOT have rocket fuel?" Pikachu yells. Dr. Lelenthal produces a nervous smile.

"I used it all up designing that jet pack that I gave to you last month…" A small sweat drop rolled down the back of Pikachu's head.

"Oh… right… I completely forgot about it. Heh, heh…" He responded.

"Well… why don't we go to the Mushroom City Mega Mall…? They have rocket fuel!" Luigi exclaims, proud of his own idea. Dr. Lelenthal shakes his head.

"I'm afraid it's not THAT easy! The type of rocket fuel my engine needs is JetRod-Z. Only one company manufactures that rocket fuel… Items Inc." Bowser's face lit up.

"That's Plenn T.'s company! OMG! I'm his biggest fan!" White Mage falls off her chair, anime style.

"I don't what was scarier… Bowser saying he's a fan of a Toad, or him going 'OMG'…" Peach exclaims.

"Both." Spyro and Epsilon responded in unison. Dr. Lelenthal cleared his throat again at which point the allies stopped laughing.

"He manufactures JetRod-Z in the company's headquarters in Future City. I'll call him and say that Princess Peach will be picking up the delivery." Peach nods. Bowser jumps in the air and flashes a thumbs up and starts singing.

"Yes! I get to meet Plenn T.! I get to meet Plenn T.! I get to meet…" Shadow blasts him with his rifle again.

"Okay… we get it. You're an obsessed fangirl… can we get on a move on?" The allies stand up and walk out to the Jeep which is parked in front of the castle. They drive off toward the highway, as Bowser starts singing another round of "I get to meet Plenn T."

ITEMS INC. HEADQUARTERS, 1030 HOURS

The Jeep pulled up to an enormous trio of steel building. They stood, monstrous giants towering over the rows of parking spaces like some sort of iron fortress. A logo of a Toad face with the letter "I" in the mushroom head was painted above a pair of giant electronic doors that made Bowser look like the size of Pikachu. "Well… here we are!" Peach proclaims, climbing out of the Jeep. Doopliss follows her next, still staring intently at his DS.

"OBJECTION!" He yells into the microphone. Some beeping and tapping are heard, after which he closes the DS. He takes a long look at the factory. "Wow… talk about big, you could land an airplane in this place it's so big!" The allies walk through the door and emerge in the front lobby. The interior is lined with rows of leather waiting chairs and coffee tables littered with magazines. At the center of the room, a black pillar rises up through the room. Four giant televisions are facing all four directions, with an animation rolling on all of them forming the Items Inc. logo. Below them is a cast-iron produced logo. Its stainless gray color glitter as light shines in through the windows. At the base of the pillar rests a circular desk mark "Information". Peach casually walks up to the desk. Whoever is there is buried in an issue of MORTAL TIME MAGAZINE. As they approach the desk, Spyro notices the cover picture displays himself, Cynder, Epsilon, Flame, Ember, as well as Zane and his buddies. The cover displays the title, "Otherworldly Beings Come Seeking Destruction." Spyro's face creases in anger at the act of propaganda.

_Surely they'd have Guy and Severus on the cover if that's what they really meant_. He thought as they sat down in a set of nearby chairs while Peach talks with the girl behind the desk alone.

"Can I help y… Oh! Princess Peach! What an honor it is to see you here in person!" The human girl has a very high and boisterous voice. "What can I do for you on this nice day?" Peach nods.

"Well… thank you. It's nice to know I'm well-know in this region. Now… I have an appointment to see Mr. Plenn T. I think an associate of mine called you earlier about that." The girl quickly picks up a phone and dials a number. She begins speaking into the phone softly, so that Peach can't hear her. Eventually, she starts typing on the computer in front of her. She speaks into the phone again. After about a minute of this, she hangs up.

"All right! It's all set up!" She reaches under the desk and hands Peach a pamphlet. "That pamphlet contains a map to Mr. President's office. It's in Quadrant Z… which, as you may've guessed, is in the back of the factories. Have a nice day!" The girl buries herself in her magazine and Peach quickly ushers the allies out of the room.

QUADRANT A, 1045 HOURS

The allies make their way into a giant factory room. Several workers dressed in protective gear are manning computer operated equipment. We pan over to one of the areas, where a bucket of hot magma is being poured into a cooling vent. The pile of cooled magma emerges from the vent seconds later and rides down a conveyer belt. It stops and is pounded by mechanical arms. The crushed pieces of coal emerge and then go through a heating vent. Magnificent sparkling diamonds of all shapes and sizes emerge from the heating vent. Next, workers attach the diamonds to rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings. "Wow… those are pretty!" Ember remarks as they pass by a giant bowl of what appears to be cookie dough. A worker is operating controls and maneuvering a giant mechanical egg beater around the mixture.

"I don't get it…" Cynder began, "I thought this company made items!" Bowser smiled.

"Oh this company makes much more than that! With the money Plenn accumulated, he's bought other manufacturing companies… and that's why he makes other products like rocket fuel!" Bowser smiled at his intellectual comments.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you didn't constantly check his Wiki page!" Shadow remarked, walking in front of the two of them. Bowser grumbles and marches after Shadow. Cynder shrugs and floats back toward White Mage. The group next passes through a room in which toys are being made. We see the back of a dump truck get the bottom and front added, followed by the wheels. Lastly a mechanized hand stamps the Items Inc. logo onto the hinge of the truck. It moves down a conveyer belt and another back of another dump truck appears. They continue to progress their way through the factory, passing various works such as plushies, ice cream (Bowser couldn't help but get a "free sample"), newspapers, magazines, books, video game consoles, until they finally arrive in Quadrant Y. The room is empty except for another giant mixing bowl, which has a white liquid in it and an empty conveyer belt that is running above it.

"What do you think is in that thing?" Spyro asks, staring at the white mixture through one of the glass windows. Luigi walks up next to him.

"Salad dressing; ranch dressing to be more precise. Plenn T. uses some sort of "secret recipe" to make it. It's really good! I use it in several of my salads!" Zero, who was walking in front of the group, stops in front of a flight of steel stairs. He puts his foot up on it and the stairs jiggle in place.

"Hmmm… I don't think these stairs are safe to climb up. The hinges are kind of loose." Zero moves his foot up and down on it again. Spyro walks past him.

"Nonsense! You gotta take risks in life sometimes!" Spyro begins to ascend the staircase, which squeaks with each new step. "See…? It's not moving!" Zero just shrugs, and motions to the others to step on before him. Epsilon just floats up the staircase. Next, Dragoon steps on; the staircase begins to move around slightly. Next, Pikachu starts walking up. Luigi and Shadow safely follow him. Peach goes up next; the staircase begins to move even more. Ember, Flame, Cynder and Doopliss get on next. The staircase is now violently shaking.

"Uh…. Bowser… I wouldn't recommend…" Zero began but Bowser had already jumped onto the staircase. A snapping sound was heard and no sooner then the stair case fell off its hinges attaching it to the upper level and plummeted toward the ground. Bowser dives to the side to avoid it. Spyro, who was almost at the top, was knocked onto the moving conveyer belt by the shaking. His eyes widen and he begins running the opposite direction.

"SPYRO! Just fly off the conveyer belt!" Ember yells. Spyro stares back at her, his face showing signs of panic.

"I can't! Zane singed my wings and they're in too much pain to open up!" At that moment, Dragoon lands on the ground and hits a red button in the process. A giant fan appears facing Spyro and begins to whirl around. Spyro begins to move backwards on the conveyer belt.

"Uh… my bad…" Dragoon exclaims as he goes over to the control panel.

"Hurry up and fix it! I can't keep this up much longer!" Spyro yells. Dragoon looks at the fan's control panel, it has two red buttons. He shrugs and pushes the top one. The fan begins blowing harder. "GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Spyro is lifted into the air and plummets into the giant bowl with an enormous splash. Dragoon pushes the other red button and the fan stops and goes back up into the ceiling. The allies just stare at the bowl until a voice clears its throat.

"Oh my! Oh my! I've told that darn mechanic at least 10 times he HAD to fix the stairs in Quadrant Y!" The allies turn around to see a Toad standing in front of them. He has a cane, is wearing spectacles, has a big burly mustache, and is wearing a suit. Bowser screams.

"PLENN T.! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Bowser rushes over and begins furiously shaking Plenn's hand. "I'm such a big fan! I buy all your products! Can I have your autograph?!" Bowser produces a notepad and a pen. "You can sign right next to Zip Toad!" Plenn T. stares at Bowser, then scribbles his signature on the black page. Bowser screams and faints, hugging the notebook. The rest of the allies, fall down anime style (except Epsilon who just fold his arms again). They're all interrupted by some kind of swishing and sloshing sound. A very annoyed Spyro, who's coated horns to tail in the slimy, white goo stares at them.

"I tried to warn you…" Zero exclaims. Spyro opens his mouth and spits out a wave of the dressing at Zero, who merely sidesteps it. "Take it easy… it's just salad dressing!" Spyro's angry face got narrower.

"BUT I JUST SWAM IN A TANK FULL OF IT!" Spyro yelled. Ember swiped a finer over Spyro's back and licked.

"WOW! Luigi was right! This stuff _is_ good!" Spyro growled and spat a second mouthful of the dressing at Ember's face. "HEY! Knock it off, Spyro!" Spyro turned his back on Ember, pretending to ignore her. Peach turns back to Plenn.

"So… do you have the JetRod-Z fuel?" She asked politely. Plenn nodded and produced a container with a picture of a fighter jet on the front label.

"Here you go! Anything for you, princess!" Peach smiled and turned to the others.

"Alright! Let's head back to the castle!" The allies nodded and walked back the way the came, a trail of white followed them as an angry Spyro marched at the rear of the group. Plenn T. looked at the mess and walked back toward a hidden elevator.

"I need a janitor on that, stat!" He cries as the elevator takes him up to the upper level.

DR. NITROS'S LAB, 1445 HOURS

"Ah! Excellent! You've brought back some JetRod-Z! Well then… I've stocked the SRX with gear for your voyage." Dr. Lelenthal exclaimed.

"This better be worth it. I also shot NOT taking one step into that fighting arena." Spyro growled, licking the last of the dressing off his leg. Cynder rolled her eyes as the allies climbed into the rocket ship. "Well… we'll see you around, Doc!" Dr. Lelenthal nods.

"If you need me, just contact me with Bob! He gets service in the surrounding planets!" Spyro nods and closes the hatchway of the jet. Inside, the jet, the allies were all strapped into large seats as the ship began to rumble. Spyro took his seat.

"This is cool… I've never been a rocket ship before!" Pikachu exclaimed, excitedly. A video screen appeared, Dr. Lelenthal staring at them. "Hi, Dr. Lelenthal!" Pikachu yelled, bouncing around in his seat. Epsilon quickly restrained him, so he didn't fly out of it.

"Alright… Vic gave me some special scouters (A/N: Think Dragonball Z on this one, people!) that will allow us to communicate; but he only made three." Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Gee… I wonder who they're for?" He glanced in Spyro, Cynder and Epsilon's direction. The three dragons just looked at each other, then walked over to a small table holding the three eyepieces. The attached them and Epsilon pressed one of the buttons. Dr. Lelenthal flashed a thumbs up to Epsilon, signaling that it was working. The SRX had now cleared earth's atmosphere, and the allies watched as the blue planet slowly began to shrink. "Hey…" Shadow began, "why aren't we floating? I thought there was no gravity in space!" Epsilon motion to a computer which had the number 100 flashing on it.

"Gravity controller… we can use it to increase or decrease the gravity aboard the rocket. We can even make the gravitational pull heavier than that of earth, but given your physical states, I wouldn't recommend doing it." Shadow nodded and walked over toward a window. A small yellow star stood out in the black vortex of space. Epsilon stared at it, "Popstar… I wonder what's going to happen to us there…" he mumbled. We pan to Spyro and White Mage. A white glow which was emanating around the purple dragon had faded. White Mage smiled at the sight.

"Cool! You can do white magic too!" Spyro smiled, pleased with his work.

"At least everything magical I do won't be destructive anymore!" He turned and spotted Popstar, the SRX approaching it at supersonic speeds. He sighed; a wave of sadness crashing into the beach of his emotions. White Mage looked at him curiously. Spyro looked back and frowned. "I just don't want to have to fight in the arena… I've had a… let's just call it a 'similar experience'." He growled as Epsilon approached them.

"We're landing… get ready to leave the ship." He exclaimed as the others walked over to them. Cynder bore the same worried look as Spyro.

PLANET POPSTAR, 1615 HOURS

As the door opened and a ramp carrying the allies descended onto the unusual clammy-gray ground, they gasped at what lay before them. The usual bright and cheery planet was now shrouded with thick black clouds, blocking out the sun. A massive industrial city filled with cold, iron buildings lined the horizon, with lines of innocent citizens chained up and marching around. In front of them loomed a gigantic outdoor arena. They gasped at the stone logo proudly standing out atop the stadium. The purple diamond of the Nightmare Investigators; but inside it was a double spiral with spikes jetting out of it, and the letter "S" on top of it. _Severus… at least he's not afraid to let people know this is his handywork_, Cynder growled, clenching her fists. "How are we going to get into this place?! It's heavily guarded!" She motioned to dozens of nightmares patrolling various levels, and searchlights were whirling about the stadium. Suddenly, the giant plasma-screen monitor blinked to life. Shown was a blue peacock, seated atop a throne and surrounded by four or five different computers. He was flanked by two Waddle Dee nightmares; these nightmares actually had all the works Nightmare Severus had, and weren't just silhouettes. The Waddle Dees held cast-iron spears, whose tips were exerting off little jolts of electricity. Luigi gasped.

"Guys! Look behind Cyber Peacock!" The allies squinted their gazes as their faces slowly went pale. The computers were connected to not one, not two, but THREE Chaos Emeralds.

"Damn!" Shadow yelled, "do you have ANY idea what he could do with that kind of power?!" Doopliss scratched his head.

"I think that nightmare program IS what he did with them! Imagine what he could do with an army of nightmares! We need to be on our toes… if one of us gets a nightmare made, we'll all be toast!"

"Speaking of toast… LOOK OUT!" Ember yelled as a battalion of nightmares began dashing toward the allies. They all branded weapons including maces, whips, electro-spears, energy gauntlets, and laser guns. The allies all assumed fighting stances as Spyro unleashes a jet of white flames at the first nightmare; a Goomba. The Goomba jumped into the air and slammed Spyro with the mace, knocking him into the all the other allies. Bowser began spinning around in his shell and launched himself at a group of Knuckle Joe nightmares and bowled them over, while Shadow blasted them with his rifle and then a Chaos Sphere attack. Epsilon transformed his sword into an energy mace and slammed it on the hard ground. A shockwave rippled out, but a line of nightmares stepped forward, brandishing shields constructed of computer bytes. The shockwave harmlessly bounced off the shields. Luigi whacked White Mage with his Ultra Hammer. White Mage shrunk in size and Luigi whacked her into a Waddle Dee nightmare. She bounces back at Luigi and he continued hitting her into oncoming nightmares, until a standard X nightmare deflects the attack back with a mace. He slams the mace into Luigi's gut, knocking him into Flame. Flame quickly regains his composure, in time to fry an incoming Koopatrol nightmare. Elsewhere, Spyro utters some words, and lightning bolts rain down from the sky, frying the nightmares.

"There has to be someone leading them!" Cynder yelled, as she slammed into a Kirby nightmare with her horns. She looked ahead and spotted a floating black cloud. It had an eyeball in the center that was glowing red. She flew at the cloud but it projected a black and red forcefield which zapped Cynder. She roared in pain before finally uttering the words, "who are you?" The cloud laughs.

"You shall know me as Anti Kracko… humble servant of the mighty Lord Severus since the beginning!" Anti Kracko's eye glowed a darker shade of red and he fired a fast moving beam out his eye. Cynder was struck by the beam and a cage of electricity surrounded her. She screamed before lifelessly slumping against the wall.

"CYNDER! NOOO!" Spyro yelled as he blew up a nightmare by casting a spell known as Concurrent Wrath. He lunges at Anti Kracko but Anti Kracko sees this and fires another beam. Spyro is too caught up in his assault to dodge the attack and is trapped by a similar electric cage. He roars as the other allies are dragged in, bound and gagged. The squirming Dragoon is electrocuted by a Pichu nightmare. Anti Kracko laughs as the battalion of nightmares cheer and utter war cries, raising their weapons.

"Well done, comrades! There shall be celebration tonight! Take these scumbags to the Executive Suites in the hotel… I shall take these two to Commander Peacock. I'm sure he'd want to use them in the arena!" The battalion saluted their general before marching off, dragging the unconscious allies with them. Anti Kracko's eye glows blue and the two helpless siblings are lifted into the air and float toward the arena. "Things are about to get heated up!" Anti Kracko cries as he follows them.

CYBER PEACOCK'S OFFICE, GALACTIC BATTLE ARENA, 2015 HOURS

Spyro groans as he begins to stir. His eyes snap open and he looks around to find himself chained into a leather chair. Cynder is in the same position, her face ready to explode with panic and sorrow. They are in a large, executive office. The new Nightmare Investigator's logo is stitched into the magenta carpet on the floor. A large shelved area is to there left. The shelves have several types of computers and electronic circuit boards littered around them. A long, sparkling oak desk lies in front of them. Cyber Peacock is sitting there, an evil grin stretched across his face. His two nightmare grunts are flanked on either side of the desk, their spears pointing at the two dragon-gods. "Ah! You're awake! My, you two gave Anti Kracko quite a scare, dzuragan." Spyro hisses at Peacock as he turns his chair around to face the two of them.

"Where are our friends?" Spyro hissed; his voice the very essence of anger. Peacock chuckled.

"They're staying in hotel suites I paid for, of course. They'll be fine. But it's not them I'm here to talk about, it's you two. As you probably already know, I run the Galactic Battle Arena. We've already accumulated a huge number of fighters, but these fights are beginning to… how should I put this… bore me. That is where _you two_ come into play. I'm going to register each of you… and you have no say in it. You will do as your told, or, as the rules state, be turned into a nightmare." Peacock smiles cheerfully as he points a small webcam at the two of them. "So… what'll it be?" Spyro's body was tense; there were small veins pulsing out in his frustration. Cynder turned and looked at him.

"Spyro! Don't you dare say no!" She hissed. Spyro looked at her; he looked as if his best friend has just been killed right in front of his eyes. He looked back at Peacock.

"Peacock… I'll fight." He turned his head away in disgust at his answer. Peacock clapped his hands.

"Marvelous! I take it you will be registering as well, Miss Cynder?" Cynder nods, deep in thought. Peacock types at his laptop furiously for a minute or so. A small ding is heard and Peacock smiles. "Excellent! You are both registered!" He turns to his grunts. "Take them to there prison cells! You'll be released only when you have a match. The Waddle Dees walked up to the two dragon-gods and grabbed their chains. As they moved out the door, Spyro noticed he was heading in a different direction as Cynder. He turned his head and met her gaze, only to throw his head in the opposite direction. Cynder frowned as the Waddle Dees descended separate staircases.

5 MINUTES LATER, WITH SPYRO…

The Waddle Dee stopped in front of a cell. He grabbed Spyro and tossed him into the cell like a heap of trash. The Waddle Dee then marched off in the direction he came. Spyro slowly got to his feet and noticed that he wasn't by himself. Inside the cell were also a Koopatrol, a white version of Anti Kracko, a green gecko with a laptop, fanny pack, and t-shirt, and a fox with two tails. They all stare at Spyro, but he ignores them and walks over to one of the walls. A loud crash is heard as Spyro bangs his head against the wall, gritting his teeth in pain. He continues to repeat the action until he slumps down onto the floor, exhausted. A large gash on his head is now beginning to bleed. The fox suddenly speaks up. "Why were you doing that?" He asked.

"Because… I'd rather be dead right now." Spyro growled. He looked at the fox and his eyes seemed to light up in thought. "Hey! You wouldn't by any chance happen to know anyone named Sonic, would you?" The fox stared at him.

"No way! I was, like, his best friend… until someone showed up and kidnapped him. Now he's gone crazy! He's fighting in the arena to amuse the nightmares and to get stronger." Spyro hung his head ruefully.

"I thought so… I was the dragon that kidnapped him." The fox stared at him in shock.

"B… but you look NOTHING like him!" Spyro looked up at him, wiping some of the blood from his forehead.

"That's because a friend… I mean… someone helped break the spell that was controlling me. Gate, who I thought was controlling me, really wasn't. The entire plan is Severus's work…" The green gecko spoke up.

"Hold up a second… you mean _the_ Severus?! The _magician_ Severus… nerr, how can he be evil?" Spyro glared at him.

"He made me almost kill my own sister… and you think he's fine?!" Spyro growled, and turned away. The white cloud floated over to him.

"What put you in such a bad mood?" He asked. Spyro turned his head slightly.

"A vile cloud… looks just like you, too… Anti Kracko…" Spyro banged his head against the wall again, deepening the gash on his forehead.

"Gah! I hate it when people think I'm Anti Kracko! I'm just Kracko… regular, not-crazy, Kracko!" Kracko responded.

"Sorry…" Spyro muttered. Kracko stared at him with his one eye.

"That's alright… anyway… this is Francis (he motions to the gecko), Tails (the fox), and Spiky Tom (the Koopatrol). We've all been trapped here for awhile now, but we'd rather fight each other, than work for Peacock." Kracko said. Spyro nodded, and then healed his forehead.

"Nerr… you know magic?! That's so high-technicaaaaaal!" Spyro shrugs.

"Yeah… I'm experienced in the magical field. Name's Spyro… my sister, Cynder is somewhere is in one of these other prison cells."

"She's not on the other side of the arena is she?" Spiky Tom asks. Spyro nods.

"She is… why?" Spiky Tom frowns.

"The Randomizer, the program Cyber Peacock designed to make the matches, usually pairs people from _our_ side of the arena with the people from the _other_ side of the arena."

"So you're saying it's likely that I might get paired up with her?!" Spyro yells. The other prisoners nod. Spyro takes out of his paws and brutally claws himself on the face. "Nice going, Spyro, you dived head first into a pool of déjà vu and hit your head on the bottom!" Suddenly, the rusty prison bars slide open. A Koopatrol nightmare walks in.

"YOU! DRAGON! Time to fight!" He grabs Spyro's chains and drags him out of the cell, slamming the bars behind him.

MEANWHILE, WITH CYNDER…

The Waddle Dee kicks Cynder into the cell and she rolls helplessly into the wall. The Waddle Dee slams the door shut and walks away. She stands up and no sooner does she then she is tackled by none other than Kirby! "Kirby! Oh no! They got you too!" Cynder exclaims. Kirby nods.

"Yeah… but wow! How'd you end up here?" Kirby asked. Cynder thought for a second and then began to recap everything that had happened from when they left Kirby for the Star Carnival until now.

"…and then Peacock forced us to register for this stupid arena! This is going to be complete déjà vu for me!" Kirby nodded, a few friends have joined him now.

"Cynder, this is Meta-Knight, Waddle Doo and King Dedede. They tried to help me fight off Peacock and Anti Kracko… but obviously that didn't work and now we're stuck here!" Cynder nodded.

"The only thing to do is to fight. Say… do you know how the fights are made?" Meta-Knight nods and begins speaking; his voice reminded her of Epsilon.

"The fighters are randomly selected. Those of us on one side of the arena are more likely to face off against someone from the opposite side of the arena." Cynder gasped.

_That's where Spyro is… but that could mean… oh no… wait… oh yes!_ Cynder went and sat against the wall, and slowly drooped into a deep sleep.

AND WITH THE OTHER ALLIES…

Ember awakes to find herself lying comfortably in a bed. There are other beds, each filled with another ally, except for Cynder and Spyro. She gasped. Epsilon walked up behind her. "I know what you're thinking… that vile cloud took the two of them to Peacock. They're probably being registered to fight as we speak." Flame walked up in front of the two of them, with the rest of the allies, except Shadow.

"The television here shows the fights in the arena! So we may end up being able to see them…" Before he can finish, Shadow bolts into the room.

"Guys! Spyro's fighting next!" He exclaims.

"What?! Already?" Peach yells in astonishment. Ember got to her feet.

"Well… who's he fighting?!" She asked, adrenaline pumping through her body.

"Lord Crump is his first opponent." Shadow answers as they run into the room with a giant television.

"Who's Lord Crump?!" Flame asks.

"A brilliant mechanic who works for the X-Nauts." Luigi answers, "The X-Nauts are a secret society that want to conquer the world. I haven't heard anything about them since Mario beat them off with the Crystal Stars!" He continues as the TV shows an aerial view of the arena.

GALACTIC BATTLE ARENA, 2330 HOURS

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen!" Peacock screams out through a microphone. The stadium is packed with all sorts of creatures, with a special section dedicated to nightmares. They are all yelling, cheering and full of energy. Nightmares are walking around the arena with sugar-filled concessions and gifts. Spyro gulps; _Skabb's arena was not nearly as bad as this_! He thought.

"Tonight I bring you a new fighter that many of you are familiar with! He is a legend, but few actually know about him! A dragon from the far reaches of the magical dimension… SPYRO!" The crowd boos and hisses as Spyro is dragged into the arena by the laughing Koopatrol.

"You're gonna need the luck, purple boy!" He yells as he throws him toward the center.

"And our other contender… the master of mechanics… LORD CRUMP!" A wave of cheers erupt as a red creature garbed in a black shirt with a white "X" over it, purple pants, and a purple hat trots into the arena.

"Buh… buh huh huh huh huh huh! This'll be a cinch! MAGNUS… LAUNCH!" Lord Crump pulls out a remote and presses a red button. A small bubble appears and Lord Crump hops into it. Suddenly it rises into the air and mechanical parts begin to spin around it. It forms into a giant robot. It has a square body with a large "X" through the center, and a 3.0 on top of it. The robot has two arms with spiky hands on the ends of them and large square feet. On its shoulder rests two large missile storage compartments and a giant laser cannon rises out the back of the robot and over the control panel head, where Lord Crump is seated. "I hope you brought extra life insurance! Cause you'll need it when I'm through squishing you! MAGNUS VON GRAPPLE, 3.0, ATTACK!" One of the Waddle Dees rings a large gong and Magnus 3.0 charges forward, punching Spyro with its hand and creating a large puncture wound. Spyro flies into the wall and the wall glows a shade of red. Up in Peacock's tower, the Red Chaos Emerald also flashes. We see Peacock laughing as we zoom it on an image on one of his laptops. An outline of Spyro fills up slightly with a purple light. The screen reads DOWNLOADING NIGHTMARE SPYRO: 2 percent completion.

"Excellent! Soon I'll have an unstoppable due of nightmares!" Peacock screams as Spyro is punched into wall again, and the meter fills up slightly yet again.

END CHAPTER 28!

Next time, Chapter 29- Free for all Brawls!


	30. Free for all Brawls!

**Author's Note: Here's the next chapter! This chapter is truly only focused on fights in the Galactic Battle Arena. There is very little plot involved in it; honest.**

**Chapter 29- Free for all Brawls!**

The crowd was roaring at the sight of the nerve-racking battle. Magnus 3.0 opened up one of its shoulders, revealing 12 missiles. It fired out the missiles, which scattered around the arena and began to fly at Spyro. He quickly ducked the first missile, blew up the second one, arched his back to the side as the third one grazed him, and delivered a sweeping seismic kick, knocking Magnus 3.0 off its feet. Spyro thrusts his arms in the air. "Enjo!" He yelled and the ground bellow him exploded, launching Magnus 3.0 into the air where Spyro proceeded to melee it; his tail exerting a great amount of yellow, electric energy. Magnus 3.0 lands on the ground with a thud and the crowd roars in amazement at the newcomer's fighting abilities. Magnus 3.0 slowly stood up.

"Buh hurgh?! You're tougher than you look! But I'm gonna squash you like the little gnat you are! Magnus drill attack!" Magnus rose into the air and began spinning at incredible speeds. Sensing what was going on, Spyro tried to cast a spell, but the lightning harmlessly bounced off Magnus and fried a nearby Kracko nightmare. Magnus 3.0 began to spin in Spyro's direction. Spyro quickly lunged into the air, narrowly avoiding the arms of Magnus 3.0. Spyro then cups his hands together, and unleashes a beam of black and red energy. A loud bang is heard as the mighty robot explodes, shooting Lord Crump high into the air. He lands on the ground with a thud. "Buh huh huh huh… huh?! NO! My precious Magnus von Grapple! Grrr… you're gonna pay for that you scaly freak!" But Spyro paid no mind to Lord Crump; he proceeded to bow before that thundering clapping of the audience. Even Peacock is performing somewhat of a "golf clap". The nightmare Koopatrol quickly trotted into the arena, and dragged Spyro back through the doors he came through.

"Humph… impressive, for an amateur." Epsilon grunted as he stared at the scene in the television in disbelief. Ember glared at him. "Err… I mean an experienced fighter." He commented, rolling his eyes. Ember flamed him, but Epsilon just walked away.

"Hey! Get back here, you… you coward!" She screams. She pouts, and then turns back to the television.

SPYRO'S CELL, 2230 HOURS

Spyro walked back into the cell as the nightmare slammed the door shut again. Tails walked up to him. "So how'd your first fight go?" Spyro looked at him, weary and exhausted.

"I… I won… but I don't think I'll be able to keep this up with out some…" And he was out like a light before he could finish his sentence.

"Tsk, tsk… poor little guy…" Kracko comments, as he floats up next to Tails. At that moment, the door screeched open again. The Koopatrol nightmare was back.

"GEEKY GECKO! Match time… now!" He grabbed Francis and dragged him out of the cell, slamming the bars shut behind him. Spyro was unfazed by the cacophony of chimes and bangs; he continued to sleep like a baby.

CYNDER'S CELL, SAME TIME

Cynder was rudely awakened by a Kracko nightmare jutting her in the gut with one of its spikes. She hissed at it, followed by a slight whimpering. Meta-Knight stepped in front of her. "Leave Lady Cynder alone. If you wanted to wake her for a match, you should have consulted me." He grabbed Cynder's paw and yanked her up. He bowed and Cynder followed the purple cloud out the cell. "Good luck. Remember, if things look nasty, trust the fury." He turned away as Cynder pondered his words.

_How did he know about fury attacks?_

GALACTIC BATTLE ARENA, 5 MINUTES LATER…

The crowd was twice as energetic as it had been previously; the audience was fired up by the display of magic from Spyro. Peacock sat atop his throne, flanked by his two grunts. He turned to the left one, "Jenkins! Start the downloading sequence!" Jenkins nodded and pulled down a switch attached to the same pedestal as the center of the three Chaos Emeralds. An outline of Cynder appears on one of Peacock's laptop screens. "Excellent! Smithers…!" The other Waddle Dee saluted Peacock. "Smithers, kindly boot up the Chaos Sensors." Smithers nodded and flipped two switches attached to the pedestals of the other Chaos Emeralds. Peacock picked up his microphone and began to call out into it. "Ladies and gentlemen… it is now my pleasure to introduce a fighter who should be equally as skilled as our young friend, Spyro! Allow me to introduce his sister… CYNDER!" The crowd exploded into an uproar of mixed cheers and jeers as Cynder slowly crept into the arena. Her head was hunched low to the ground; she was clearly displeased with the situation before her. "And her opponent, master of all that is nerd… Francis!" The crowd erupted into cheers once more as Francis walked out on to the field.

"Nerr… I'm fighting a dragon babe?! High-technicaaaaaaaal! I shall defeat you with my elite nerr battle moves!" Francis pulled a laptop out of his fanny pack. Cynder was disgusted by the scene in front of her and proceeded to cringe slightly at the sight of Francis typing on the laptop. Suddenly, Francis vanished. "Nerr… you can't catch what you can't see, babe! Try and lay one hit on me!" Cynder crouches low to the ground, her head scanning the arena for any signs of trouble. She suddenly screams as a wet, slimy object that can be identified as a tongue sticks to her back and Francis swallows her whole. Some swishing sounds can be heard and Francis spits Cynder into the wall. Cynder looks at herself in disgust; she is coated in spit and small teeth marks

"ARGH! Can't I even stay healed for 5 minutes any more?! I don't think 5 months of therapy could make that right in any way!" She yells as she lunged at Francis, who smiles and vanishes once again. Cynder charges around the arena, hoping to "bump" into him. Francis reappears and types on his laptop.

"MEOWBOMBS!" He vanishes again as three cat-shaped bombs fall out of the sky and begin chasing after Cynder. She smirks and flies into the air, easily dodging them as they explode. Francis appears below her, and Cynder uses the airborne advantage to slam into him, followed by an earth pound knocking him into the wall. Francis vanishes again, only to quickly reappear near her. He pulls out a camera and pushes the button. The entire arena flashes white, and Cynder is blinded as Francis reappears behind her. The small webcam on his laptop fires a laser at Cynder, burning her leg. She roars as she drops to her knees, the pain too much to handle. Francis vanishes and then reappears. Cynder cups her hands together and fires out an arc of fireballs which careen into Francis. "AIRMEOWS!" Francis yells as he vanishes and five, cats dressed in maids' outfits, with wings, began to swoop at Cynder. Cynder melees the first two, destroying them, blasts the third, grabs the fourth and throws it into Francis, who fires another webcam laser which Cynder dodges with ease. The last Airmeow is crushed in Cynder's mighty maw, and chucked at Francis, who manages to successfully swallow Cynder whole. He begins to chew on her. "Nerr… it tastes like chicken!" He comments. Suddenly, Francis opens his mouth wide, and black smoke begins flying out of it. "AHHHHHHHHH!" Francis yells as Cynder flies out and proceeds to form various signals with her hands. A torrent of fireballs rushes into the sky and explodes on Francis, who collapses on the ground, unconscious. The crowd erupts into cheers as Cynder smiles and waves to them.

"Very interesting…" Peacock mutters to himself as the Kracko nightmare drags Cynder off to her cell.

SPRYO'S CELL, 2300 HOURS

Spyro had awoken to find Francis being tossed into the cell by the Koopatrol nightmare. "So… how'd you do?" Spyro asked, clearly in a better mood than before. Francis frowned.

"Nerr… I was beaten! Your sister has some high-technicaaaaaaal battle moves!" Spyro's eyes lit up.

"You fought… Cynder…?" Francis nodded._ And she won… great… with each win we're both achieving I'm feeling worse and worse._ Spyro's thoughts were interrupted by the Koopatrol who grabs Spyro. "What… another match already?! I've hardly gotten any rest from the first one!" The Koopatrol laughs.

"Who cares? Both the crowd and Commander Peacock are enjoying the entertainment you and your cute little sister provide for us!" He comments as Spyro just manages to make out a white lab coat being dragged the other way.

GALACITC BATTLE ARENA, 2305 HOURS

Peacock was now dressed up in a fancy suit; a white jacket, a silver shirt and tie, sparkling silver pants, and a silver top hat and cane composed the spectacle of riches shimmered under the lights of the arena. "That's right folks… you requested him and now he's back! The 1 and 0 purple dragon with a vengeance… SPYRO!" The crowd jumped into the air, chanting "Spyro, Spyro, Spyro," as he trotted confidently into the arena. "And now… without this man, we wouldn't be here! He designed Zero, the start of all of this… the 6, 1 and 1 crazy scientist, Dr. Albert Wily!" The crowd cheered again as a saucer floated into the arena, a bald scientist with crazy gray eyebrows, and a mustache poked his head out.

"Mweee heee heee hee! So you're one of Zero's friends, eh?" The saucer instantly spun around in the air and soon transformed into a giant robot complete with four giant arms and an equally gigantic head bearing Dr. Wily's logo. Spyro groaned and dodged a fast moving laser that sprouted from a jewel atop Mecha-Wily's forehead. Jenkins ringed the gong and Spyro shot a blast of lightning at Mecha-Wily, but the attack harmlessly bounced off the robot's arm. Spyro swore as he was swatted out of the sky like a fly by one of Mecha-Wily's giant arms. The arm then transforms into a mace and slams down into Spyro, who roars in agony as his flesh is torn by the massive shards of metal. He bolts into the air and, in his rage, uses an electric fury. As electric clouds send bolts of lightning in all directions, a few strike the forehead and Mecha-Wily flashes white. Spyro finished off with a circular wall of electric energy which damages Mecha-Wily. Mecha-Wily quickly shakes off the damage and the four hands meld into a giant blaster, which fires a stream of energy that Spyro narrowly dodges. Spyro responds by comet dashing into the vulnerable head of the robot.

The four arms of the robot explode, scattering metallic shards everywhere and knocking Spyro into the wall. The robot now sports four tentacles composed of internal wires. The tentacles grab Spyro and electrocute, charring his shimmering purple scales and they slam him on the ground. Mecha-Wily fires another fast moving laser that Spyro rolls to the side to dodge. Spyro quickly leaps into the air to avoid one of Mecha-Wily's tentacles, but a second tentacle grabs his tail and drags him in front of the head, where the mouth opens, revealing a flamethrower which torches Spyro. Spyro cries out in agony, his muscles straining from the effort to brake free of the tentacles strong gasp. Spyro then casts a spell and a hail storm rains down on Mecha-Wily, damaging it and allowing Spyro to plummet to the ground with a thud. Spyro slowly staggers to his feet and then dives onto the ground again to dodge another laser.

"I… can't… give… up!" Spyro roars as he thrusts his arms and legs forward. A blast of blue and gold energy races forward, damaging Mecha-Wily.

"No! No! No! NO!!!!!" Mecha-Wily explodes, as Wily's saucer flies in front of Spyro. "Now you're in for it punk!" Dr. Wily screams as his saucer vanishes. It quickly reappears behind Spyro and four energy balls spiral out around it, striking Spyro as Dr. Wily vanishes yet again. Dr. Wily appears above Spyro and Spyro uppercuts the saucer, his hand ablaze with white flames. Dr. Wily fires energy balls in random directions, but they all suddenly stop and fly toward Spyro, homing in on him. Spyro dodges the energy balls and creates a giant electric orb which he sends spiraling into Dr. Wily. Dr. Willy fires out several energy crescents, each one large than the previous one. He vanishes again and Spyro dives to the side, as a laser sweeps by him. He comet dashes in the direction of the laser, damaging Dr. Wily. Dr. Wily fires four energy balls into the air and disappears again. The energy balls land on the ground and cause miniature explosions, one of which engulfs Spyro, adding to the burns already inflicted upon his charred body. Dr. Wily reappears and fires out both energy crescents and spiraling energy balls. Spyro creates a sapphire barrier and rams Dr. Wily. "NO! NOT AGAIN!" Dr. Wily yells as his saucer explodes, and he crashes into the ground with a thud. "Curse you, Spyro the dragon! A scientist of my I.Q. _can't_ lose to such a primitive creature! DRAT, I SAY!" The crowd explodes with applause as Spyro manages to heal the burns encasing his usually-shimmering purple body. Peacock bows at Spyro, tipping his hat off to him as Spyro walks back to his prison cell.

SPYRO'S CELL, 2400 HOURS

Spyro collapses on the floor, and quickly falls asleep. "I take it he won…" Spiky Tom said as Tails fidgeted with some sort of ray gun. Kracko nodded.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Dr. Wily is too predictable…"

"Yeah… sure… that's why you're the only one that's managed to beat him!" Spiky Tom retaliates. Kracko blinks at him.

CYNDER'S CELL, 2400 HOURS

_I wonder how Spyro's doing… he's probably so angry he can't bear to live with himself._ Cynder thought as she dug into the rock wall of the cell with one of her talons. Meta-Knight tapped her on the shoulder; she turned around to see the Kracko nightmare looming above her. "Another match…?" She sighed and got to her feet. The nightmare nodded and escorted her out of the cell. Meta-Knight bowed to her yet again. _He's an interesting character… that Meta-Knight…_

GALACTIC BATTLE ARENA, 2405 HOURS

Peacock now had on a pair of black sunglasses in addition to his silver tuxedo. He turned to Jenkins. "All this revenue is lovely for me, wouldn't you say?" Jenkins nodded, and Peacock picked up the microphone. "Here she comes yet again, folks! You love her, you loathe her, you want to be her… the might dragon-goddess… CYNDER!" The crowd (which had not yet shrunk in numbers) exploded yet again as Cynder strolled casually into the arena, smirking. "Look at her!" Peacock exclaimed, "strutting around this arena like she owns the place! Now, her challenger… a creature so bizarre, words cannot describe him… give it up for the 3 and 3 Master Hand!" The crowd applauded as a giant white glove levitated into the arena. Cynder cocked an eye upward, startled by the appearance of her foe.

"Hah! Don't let the fact that I am a glove intimidate you!" Smithers rang the gong and the battle was on! Master Hand flopped onto Cynder and had some sort of seizure, exploding and rolling on top of her. Cynder jumped to her feet.

"What the hell kind of attack was that?!" She panted.

"A darn good one, pipsqueak!" Master Hand responded, as he extended all of his fingers forward, emitting a laser beam from each one. Cynder expertly dodged them and meleed Master Hand with her tail. Master Hand forms his hand into a gun and fires out two missiles which fly straight forward, allowing Cynder to dodge with ease and strike him with an earth flail attack. Master Hand yelled in frustration and formed into a fist. He floated around the arena, chasing Cynder. Finally, he slams down onto her, but is instead hurt by the spikes on Cynder's head and back. Cynder takes the time to cast blizzard, freezing Master Hand. She proceeds to melee him until he flops on the ground like a dead fish.

"That was too easy…" She commented, as she turned and confidently strode out of the arena. Peacock stared at the dragon-goddess with interest, thinking silently to himself.

SPYRO'S CELL, 2420 HOURS

Spyro was still fast asleep when the sound of the door being slammed woke him up. He groaned as the nightmare Koopatrol walked over to him. "I hate this world…" He growls as he stands up and follows the nightmare, deep in thought and cringing slightly from the burns still left on his paws and feet.

GALACTIC BATTLE ARENA, 2425 HOURS

"Ah… I see Master Severus has sent one of his higher minions to fight here… should prove to be an interesting match!" Peacock exclaimed as Jenkins and Smithers took their positions on either side of Peacock. "Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen! I now bring you a fight between the undefeated Spyro…" The crowd cheers as Spyro walks into the arena, trying to avoid falling asleep. "And one of Severus's more trusted minions… SONIC!" The crowd was silent as a familiar blue hedgehog spun into the arena. Spyro's eyes snapped open.

"YOU!" They spat at each other. "Heh heh… this'll be a piece of cake, and then it shall be I who is Severus's assistant!" Smithers hits the gong and Sonic spin dashes at Spyro, drilling him into the wall. Spyro staggers to his feet and suffers a fury of punches and kicks that are too fast for him to stop. Sonic then uppercuts him and he rockets into the air. Sonic jumps up and slams Spyro from above. Spyro plummets to the ground creating a medium-sized crater. He slowly got to his feet, wiping some blood from his chest. "Ready to give up?" Spyro hissed at him, and then unleashed a storm of shadow balls. Sonic runs to the side, easily dodging them.

_I can't hit him… he's moving too fast! There has to be a way!_ Spyro thought to himself, and then it hit him; _I have to slow him down to my speed!_ Spyro closed his eyes and focused. Sonic, seeing the opening, rushed at Spyro, ready to attack. Spyro's eyes shot open, glowing a sky blue color. Instantly a wave of energy surges over the arena; Sonic is now moving about as slow as a turtle, as is everyone and everything else in the arena. Spyro sees his opening and unleashes an onslaught of gold energy balls on his target. They explode, and Sonic flies into the wall as the arena returns to normal. Sonic just got up and sped toward Spyro. Spyro sidestepped the attack and delivered a powerful sweeping kick, tripping Sonic and knocking him headfirst into the wall. "Oh… that had to hurt…" Spyro commented as Sonic collapsed on the ground, unconscious. Spyro walks out of the arena, leaving a small trail of bright red blood.

"They are disposing of their foes quicker… wouldn't you say, Smithers?" Smithers shook his head. "Then I'd say the ultimate showdown is approaching fast." Peacock commented as he looked at the laptop screens and frowned. The nightmares were only 30 percent completed. _Very soon…_ he thought. At that moment, a voice rang out through one of the laptops.

"PEACOCK!" Severus yells, his face filling up the screen of the third laptop. "What's going on up there?!" Peacock smiles and removes the shades over his face.

"I captured the two of them and entered them into the arena! They're really putting on quite a show… and I'm sure that the two nightmares I make of them will be unstoppable!" Severus smiled.

"Good… but speed up the process! This is taking too long, and I just cannot make the Enigma Portal with the scarce planning Gate left behind!" Peacock nodded.

CYNDER'S CELL, 2455 HOURS

Kirby was being escorted into the cell by the Kracko nightmare. Cynder walks up to Meta-Knight. "Hey… can I talk to you for a second?" She asks. Meta-Knight nods.

"As you wish, Lady Cynder…" Cynder chuckles slightly.

"Listen… I've been thinking… and I have a plan to try and get those Chaos Emeralds from Cyber Peacock… but I need you, Kirby, Waddle Doo, and that other guy to help me." Meta-Knight stared at her, interested by what she had to say. "I'm thinking of doing the 'request a match' process that nightmare told me about. He said that I request to fight someone with an undefeated record, and then I get something in return. So my plan is…"

"…to invite us four as 'guests' for the match, and we'll snag the treasure at some particular point." Meta-Knight finishes, staring at her in shock. "But who would you request to challenge, Lady Cynder?" Cynder frowned.

"Spyro… I have to… it's the only way." She sighed, "if I can unleash either the 'Twin Dance' or 'Twin Rage' attack, we could possibly cause enough destruction to give you guy an opening!" Meta-Knight gasps. "So you know what I'm talking about?"

"As someone who spent time working for Tray… he's mentioned 'Twin Rage' numerous times." Meta-Knight sighed. "But do what you wish… I ask that you spare our planet, however." Cynder nods, and no sooner because the Kracko nightmare floats into the cell and takes Cynder out.

GALACTIC BATTLE ARENA, 0115 HOURS

"You know what they say… another day… another round of excitement! So let's kick this day off with a bang! We're pitting Dr. Ivo Robotnik against Cynder!" The crowd explodes as the two fighters approach the center and shake hands.

"Hah hah! This should be a piece of cake!" Dr. Robotnik comments as he hops into his trademark Eggmobile. The Eggmobile sprouts a mace which juts out its spikes as Smithers hits the trademark gong. Eggmobile begins swinging its mace around and Cynder jumps to the side as the mace slams into the ground. She shoots a ring of black fire at Eggmobile, but the mace slams down on the flames, harmlessly deflecting them. Cynder sees an opportunity to attack and slams Eggmobile with her arms, legs, wings, and tail. Eggmobile slams its mace on the ground, and a shockwave rushes forward, but is easily dodged by Cynder. "Grr… hold still so I can crush you!" Dr. Robotnik exclaims as the mace once again misses Cynder. She retaliates with a beam of electric energy. The mace explodes and Eggmobile now sprouts two flamethrowers on either side of it and a laser cannon coils over where Dr. Robotnik is seated. "Alright… beginner's luck! Now let's try round two!" He exclaims as Eggmobile charges forward, the flamethrowers exerting massive quantities of orange flames. Cynder is unable to dodge the attack this time and is seared by the flames.

"ARGH!" She roars as she is struck by a blast from the laser cannon atop Eggmobile. The flamethrowers begin rotating around the core of Eggmobile, encircling him in a ring of fire. He begins to give chase to Cynder, who runs at the wall. She hits the wall and rebounds off of it. She flies at Eggmobile, her paws glowing blue with ice energy. She slams the two flamethrowers and they explode, damaging Eggmobile. Next, she slices the laser cannon with her razor-sharp tail. Eggmobile now begins to transform. It turns into a giant metal body and sprouts two arms with a laser gun and a claw for hands. It sprouts two giant legs with rockets attached to the back. Dr. Robotnik laughs as the eyes or the robot open, revealing him.

"Say hello to Eggbot! Round 3 for you!" He yells as the laser arm sweeps a laser around the arena. Cynder takes to the sky, dodging the attack but is suddenly grabbed by the claw and slammed on the ground. The force of the attack creates a large crater in the ground. She glares at Eggbot and unleashes a wave of black flames that hit Eggbot square in the stomach. Eggbot begins sweeping its laser around the arena again. Cynder creates a barrier of black and red energy, which reflects the attack back at Eggbot. She flies into the air and suddenly unleashes a new ice breath. The breath forms a sword which Cynder sweeps around her, slicing the claw arm off of Eggbot.

"Th-that's impossible!" Dr. Robotnik yells as Cynder repeats the attack on the other arm, then slams Eggbot with her tail. Eggbot falls on the ground and explodes. The crowd roars with amusement. Cynder, her expression serious and glum, flies up to Peacock. Smithers and Jenkins point their spears at her. Peacock motions for them to step back.

"What is it, Cynder?" He asks, smiling.

"You _must _know… I want to request a match against an undefeated fighter… for now! And in return, you'll let my cellmates watch the battle." Peacock's evil grin widens.

"I shall do it! Your opponent will be…" He leans in and whispers to Cynder. She responds with a serious nod and flies back behind the entrance.

CYNDER'S CELL, 0130 HOURS

The Kracko nightmare slams the bars open. "Let's go… all of you! Cynder used the match request and she requested to have you all watch the match!" They all nod and follow the nightmare out of the cell. Meta-Knight was whispering to the others.

SPYRO'S CELL…

Spyro was in a much better mood than before, now that he'd gotten a little more rest. But he soon noticed the Koopatrol walking up to the cell, a startled expression on his face. "S… someone's _requested_ to battle you."

"R-requested… to battle me?! Who?! Is that person insane?" The Koopatrol grabs Spyro and ushers him out of the cell. Spyro's face was slowly filling with dread as he thought of who could possibly do something like that…

GALACTIC BATTLE ARENA, 0150 HOURS

"Ladies and gentlemen… many of you have been asking _when_ and _if_ this climactic battle would take place! Well, you don't have to wait any longer! In a stunning event, I present you Galactic Showdown's _first_ requested battle! The challenged fighter is Spyro!" The crowd erupts into applause as Spyro glares in the direction of the other entrance. "And the challenger… his very own sister… Cynder!" Spyro's face went pale. He whacked his head a few times and blinked his eyes, hoping it was a dream; but it wasn't. Cynder was standing there, a serious expression fixed on her face.

"IS CYNDER CRAZY?!" Flame yelled at the television. "She REQUESTED to fight SPYRO?! Epsilon, your half-sister's loosing it! DO SOMETHING! Get us out of here!" Epsilon folded his arms.

"Not gonna happen. They locked us in here, remember?" Flame's jaw dropped. We cut back to the arena where Spyro has a similar expression on his face.

"Y… you… requested… to… fight… me…" Spyro was slipping into a state of panic. But it got worse; the chef of Spyro's horrible meal of emotions had just tossed anger into the mixture. "_**YOU WANTED TO FIGHT ME**_?!" His nostrils flared up, smoke bellowing out of them. 

"Ha ha ha! Such wonderful knife-edged treason! Now… I know you are all concerned about the amount of power that could be unleashed in this battle. So I took the liberty of installing forcefields around the arena!" Peacock commented as blue walls of binary code surround the two dragons. Smithers, his hands quaking with fear, strikes the gong. Spyro is still paralyzed by his anger and panic.

"Well… I'm waiting!" Cynder exclaimed, tapping her foot. Spyro clenched his teeth, sinking his claws into the ground. "Oh well… you asked for it!" She yelled as she charged Spyro launched a blast of flames at him. Without thinking, he took the hit dead on and flew into the wall. He gets to his feet.

"…" Spyro's claws dug deeper into the chalky earth. Cynder just grunted and then dived at him, unleashing a round of frantic punches and kicks. She finishes by puncturing Spyro's tail with the blade resting on the end of hers. He stood up again, only now tears began to form in his eyes. "How could you _do_ such a thing?! After all the pain I went through 150 years ago with this… you _knew_ what a dreadful experience I had! You saw my feeling for the entire time leading up to the fight with Anti Kracko! Why would you do such a thing you… you… MONSTER!" He rushes at her and unleashes a torrent of white fireballs from his hands. They fly into her and explode, knocking her out of the air and into a devastating flaming uppercut from Spyro. Cynder regains her composure in midair and fires out a blast of electricity. Spyro retaliates with one of his own. The two attacks collide in midair, and a thunderous explosion engulfs the two of them, dragging them toward opposite corners of the arena. "This is my anger… my sorrow… and most importantly… my _**RAGE**_!" Spyro roared as the two dragons began charging up energy in their hands.

END CHAPTER 29!

**What in the…? Spyro, what are you doing?! Cynder's on your side! Find out what happens next chapter!**

Next time, Chapter 30- Destiny: Linking the Hearts


	31. Destiny: Linking the Hearts

**Author's Note: I'm once again issuing a violent content/language warning for this chapter. Think of this chapter as a reprieve of "Secrets and Bruises"…**

**Chapter 30- Destiny: Linking the Hearts**

Spyro and Cynder released their energies; Cynder's a beam of black and red, Spyro's a beam of shimmering gold. The massive energies collided in midair and a much larger explosion engulfed the two fighters. While the smoke attempted to leave the arena, the sounds of punching, kicking, and blocking could be made out by members of the crowd. The smoke disappeared in time to see Spyro savagely bite Cynder's tail and use the strength in his mouth to throw her to the ground, ripping some of her flesh in the process (A/N: Well… I _did_ warn you!). She screamed in pain and kicked Spyro square in the jaw. He hissed and wiped some of the blood dripping out of his mouth.

"Eat this!" Spyro yelled as he punched the ground, his fist glowing with purple energy. A wave of shadowy mist rushed out and Cynder flew over it, but Spyro was smarter than that and a second wave rushed at her in the air, hitting her in the gut as she careens into the wall. Spyro flies at her, horns first and collides with her. That particular section of the wall explodes, scattering rubble throughout the arena. Spyro is launched out of the crater, a vortex of swirling flames and electricity drilling into his already-burnt back. He slides across the ground, roaring in pain. Cynder flies out and comet dashes into him. Spyro retaliates by conjuring and electric orb and knocking it into Cynder. Spyro then unleashes a wave of ice breath, which Cynder counters with her fire. Another explosion ensues, sending flaming ice shards at both fighters, who erect barriers to shield themselves. Spyro then begins chanting, a golden aura flashing around him. A storm of hail rushes through the smoke and buffets Cynder. The hail suddenly is lit ablaze by Spyro and the ground in front of him erupts in a fiery inferno. Cynder rushes out of the area and tackles Spyro to the ground.

The two dragon-gods roll around in a ball, each trying to pin the other down. Cynder finally gets on top of Spyro. She unleashes a stream of black flames from her mouth. Spyro roars in pain as his head is engulfed by the flames. She then stabs him on either side of his stomach with the two sharp blades on the tips of her wings. Enraged, Spyro flips Cynder off of her and fires out a stream of ice from one hand, and fire from another. The two opposites collide with Cynder, and another explosion engulfs her. "This is ridiculous!" Zero yells into the television, back at the hotel. "If they keep that up, who knows what's going to happen!" Back in the arena, Cynder had just slammed an electric orb at Spyro, who dodges. The orb hits the arena wall, and it explodes. The two dragons are met with an onslaught of rubble, but they divert their attention so as to dodge each other's ice shards. One of the shards gets Spyro's hind leg, the same leg in which a shard had buried itself in while he was in Ice Cavern, before he ever found Cynder. He grabs the shard, yanks it out of his leg and assaults Cynder, slashing her brutally across the chest with the shard. The gash begins to bleed and Spyro merely hisses at the sight.

Enraged by his actions, Cynder smacks him with her tail, then rises into the air, glowing green. Suddenly, boulders begin raining from the sky, and whirlwinds rise from the ground. The two forces of nature slam into Spyro and he screeches. The audience all plugs their ears, and for a moment, Peacock stares in disbelief as his laptop screens go static. Cynder floats back down to the ground, but is suddenly met by a flurry of hail. Spyro, who is now in the air, is surrounded by ice. Ice shards begin to attach themselves to his wall, transforming him into a giant ice mace. The mace explodes, shooting fragments of ice at the defenseless Cynder. She is overwhelmed by the onslaught and screams as the shards penetrate her scaly body. "_**HAD ENOUGH**_?" Spyro roared.

"No! I'm just getting warmed up!" Cynder panted, lunging at Spyro. He growls and lashes out at her with his tail, knocking her into the wall. Cynder gets up from the attack and retaliates with her own tail strike. She dives at Spyro, but he grabs her and squeezes her tight as the two crash into the ground with a mighty thud. They stand up and fly at each other, glowing with elemental energy. Yet another midair explosion occurs, this one much larger than the previous ones. The two dragon-gods are knocked away from each other but continue to fly at each other several more times; each one creating a more devastating explosion. Peacock stared in amazement as his laptop screens once again went static, this time for an even longer period. The dust settles and the two of them fire off round after round of shadow balls at each other. The attacks collide in midair, and Cynder takes the opportunity to charge Spyro attack him with her ice sword breath, followed by several smacks with earth flail. Spyro crashes into the wall, but quickly speeds after Cynder, who flies up into the air. Spyro gives chase; slowly gaining on Cynder, whose wings were not as used to flying as Spyro's. Spyro grabs her tail and with incredible strength, throws her into the wall. She gets up and proceeds to fire out a round of fast moving lasers. _A new spell?! Perfect timing! _Cynder thought as Spyro was tripped up by the beams and hurt. He got up again; tears were flowing down his face again.

"Give up… dammit… give UP!" He growled as he used an earth pound to slam Cynder into the wall. He opened his mouth and to his utter surprise, an all too familiar blast of purple energy came streaming out of his mouth. The mighty convexity breath exploded, destroying the entire stadium wall. Cynder's screams of pain were barely heard over the noise. What happened next shocked everyone. A large, glowing, silhouette, flickered above Spyro, and then came into focus. From the hotel room, the allies stared in shock as they gazed upon the monster that Severus had turned Spyro into. The two Spyros stood there, glaring at the giant crater.

"Wh… what is this?!" Flame asked. "What the hell is going on down there?!" Flame yelled. A chuckle was heard. Tray had materialized behind all the allies.

"I suggest you all find good hiding places… because things are about to heat up!" Cynder had emerged from the rubble, and a gigantic, black dragon silhouette was now above her as well. "What you're seeing is their inner rage… dark halves that were locked away inside of them 150 years ago by each other; the results of the Dark Master and Severus."

"But… but… I thought Spyro had only _just_ been made evil!" Ember retorted. Tray smirked briefly.

"Absolutely not… but this information is not of _any_ concern to you (A/N: Yes, I'm masking up Spyro: The Eternal Night spoilers)." Tray laughs. Back in the arena, the two dragons roared; the dark silhouettes mimicked the action, their roars much deeper and frightening.

"_**DIE**_!" They screamed at each other and charged them, black auras encasing them, powered by the inner dark souls. They crash and the arena explodes, black energy engulfing it, but harmlessly bouncing off Peacock's shields. At the hotel, the windows shatter, raining glass and beams of black energy on the allies. Epsilon grabbed the two Chaos Emeralds they'd collected and erected a rainbow barrier around them. Back in the arena, Spyro and Cynder were now flying upward; throwing out frenzied punches and kicks at each other. Each dragon took the blows, and hit back harder. Eventually, their hands glowed purple. The slammed the convexity blasts into each other, and another midair explosion ensued. They were both knocked back by the explosion, but they quickly unleashed waves of their flame breaths. The black and white collides in midair, and the incredible amount of energy overwhelms the two dragons, and they roar in unison as the flames engulf them. Suddenly, the sound of shattering is heard.

"My… my barriers! But how?!" Peacock exclaimed. Suddenly, an enraged Severus appeared in one of the laptop's screens, which was struggling to avoid going static.

"Peacock! What in the blazes is going on up there?!" Peacock turned the laptop to face the battle. The fire energy forms into a massive energy ball which Spyro and Cynder knock back at each other, each one adding to the ball with more flames. Eventually, the size becomes overwhelming and the energy ball explodes. The stadium rumbles as it begins to crumble under the mighty power of the energy ball. In the hotel, the walls are completely incinerated and the allies all careen in the direction of the fighting. They suddenly find themselves between the two dragons, who are now charging up energy in their hands.

"SPRYO! CYNDER! SNAP OUT OF IT! YOU'RE ABOUT TO…" But Ember's cries were in vain. The two unleashed a spectacular sight, twin energy beams; half gold, half black; yin and yang. The two beams engulfed the terrified allies and the collapsing arena finally exploded, scattering nightmares and flesh creatures everyone. Peacock was blown away into the industrial city of Popstar that he'd created. He turns away in anger, and he flies off toward the city, Smithers, Jenkins and Anti Kracko following. The allies all slowly stand up from under the rubble in time to see it; they were gold. The two giant silhouettes roared and suddenly exploded; but the explosion was real. The two golden dragon-gods merely harnessed the energy, their auras of golden flames now three times as big as the duo. The energy began swirling around them. Their eyes suddenly snapped open, and they roared. But what was different about this roar… what made this roar unlike anything every witnessed by any creature in the history of man kind; they were roaring _in each other's voices_. The allies stared dumbstruck at this; a move that they would regret.

It happened. The golden and black energy surged out of their bodies; shaped like the heads of the dragon they were facing; like the roaring. The beams of energy flew at massive speeds and collided; explosion upon explosion rocking the very core of the planet, incinerating the entire area near the arena. But they didn't stop there, the roaring got louder, the beams got larger. The allies were already being bombarded with blasts of energy. Then, when it looked like it couldn't possibly be any more devastating, they each unleashed a final enormous wall of black and gold energy. The two streams of energy collided, and within seconds, what was the arena was now reduced to a burning wasteland. The three Chaos Emeralds were exerting massive amounts of bright light; adding their destructive power to the two dragons.

The dust didn't even have time to settle. The two dragons rushed at each other and collided. Bolts of lightning thundered down from the heavens, the planet shook and then… it was over. Meta-Knight, Kirby, Waddle Doo, and King Dedede, who were all somehow protected from the attacks ran up to the two dragons, who stood facing each other; their muscles bulging out at all points, their flesh charred and bloody. "Talk about an explosion! You guys blew up half the planet!" Kirby exclaimed; they remained silent, their eyes fixated on each other.

"Doesn't matter…" Spyro growled; his voice filled with some sort of poison. "Cynder… you promised… you promised you wouldn't drag me into something like _this_." The way he said that last word filled Cynder's veins with an icy cold feeling.

"I… I thought it was the only way…" But she was stopped in mid-sentence. The burning grounds were suddenly rumbling. "What the…" A giant robot with two large arms floated up in front of them. Peacock was standing on top of it; tentacles composed of only wires were attaching Peacock to the robot.

"You fools destroyed my beautiful arena! You took my Chaos Emeralds… but now I'm gonna take your lives! Say hello to the Harmless Robot-Humanoid!" Kirby laughed.

"Ha! We've fought the HR-H before! Piece of cake!"

"We did?!" King Dedede asks. Kirby falls down, anime style.

"You should really hang out with a guy named Bowser… you'd be perfect for each other." Spyro proclaimed, his voice still showing signs of anger. Peacock grins and a cyber forcefield pops up around Kirby.

"That's why you won't be fighting, dear Kirby! NOW… HR-H, ATTACK THEM!" The tentacles extending out of Peacock glowed blue and HR-H fired eight missiles into the air. The slammed into the ground and a few of them exploded, while the others became stuck to the ground. Dedede tried whacking one of the missiles with his mallet, but it just blew up, knocking him to the ground. HR-H slams its two arms together, flattening Waddle Doo. Waddle Doo tries firing a beam at HR-H but it harmlessly bounces off. HR-H fires more missiles into the air. Spyro decided to pick up one of the missiles that got stuck and throws it at the HR-H. The robot explodes slightly. "Gah! Quit it you loathsome pests!"

HR-H slammed its two hands together and Cynder chucked one of the missiles at it, scoring a direct hit. The small circle on top of HR-H suddenly conjures a fast-moving laser and sweeps it through the fighters. Meta-Knight dodges the attack by pulling his cloak around himself and vanishing, only to reappear in the air, using his bat-like wings to fly around. HR-H slams its arms together, and crashes them into the ground. A shockwave ripples out, followed by two missiles. Meta-Knight kicks one of them at HR-H and scores a direct hit on the arms. The arms slam into the ground again, this time creating two shockwaves. HR-H fires another sweeping laser, then sweeps it the other way. Cynder bumps into Spyro and he slashes her across the face. "Whoops… my bad." He growled, sarcastically. HR-H fires another round of missiles into the air, also sweeping its laser around the ground. Spyro slams a missile with his tail, scoring a hit on HR-H. HR-H suddenly flashes white.

"You punks are nothing but trouble! HR-H… transform and destroy those fools!" HR-H suddenly transforms into a fighter jet, with two giant claws. "Say hello to the Harmless Robot-Ermine!" The HR-E begins flying around the arena, shooting out missiles that spiral around and explode in midair. Spyro is caught off guard and blasted into Cynder, who merely adds to the damage with her flame breath. "Oh… I'm sorry; I thought you were a nightmare!" She exclaimed, tossing him aside and deflecting a missile back at HR-E, scoring a direct hit. HR-E retaliates by lashing out with its claws; grabbing a hold of Cynder and King Dedede and slamming them into each other. HR-E suddenly flies up into the air, its fiery propulsion burning Spyro and Waddle Doo. HR-E then slams into the ground and a wave of fire rushes out, hitting all but Meta-Knight who skillfully dodges the attack. HR-E fires out some more missiles. Kind Dedede smacks a missile back at HR-E, as if it was a tennis ball, with his mallet, scoring a hit. Waddle Doo fires a beam at another missile, and it explodes as HR-E tries to attack Meta-Knight with its claws. The other claw managed to grab Cynder and chucks her into a piece of rubble.

HR-E begins firing another round of missiles. The allies all perform various attacks and the missiles careen into HR-E, and it begins flashing white. "ARGH! I've had it up to here with you all! But I've put a new little trick on this! Go… Harmless Robot-Decimator!" The HR-E suddenly morphs into a giant tank, with two turrets, four giant claws, two laser cannons above the turrets, and a giant hold grabbing a purple, spiked bomb with Severus's logo on it. The HR-D fires out giant cannonballs from its turrets which explode on impact. Meta-Knight grabs Waddle Doo and flies him safely away from an incoming cannonball. The four giant pincers lash out in different directions, grabbing Spyro, Cynder, Meta-Knight and Waddle Doo and slamming them into each other. The hand in the back suddenly launches forward. The bomb hits the ground and waves of purple energy composed of binary code rushes out, badly damaging the allies. A new bomb appears and is launches, followed by a pair of dual lasers from the top of the tank. Spyro and Cynder combing their earth flails to launch the bomb back at HR-D, damaging it.

"You… helped me? Why… aren't you upset with me?" Spyro asks, confused. Cynder frowns, and knocks Spyro out of the way of an incoming laser, taking the hit herself. Spyro sees this and stands there, dumbstruck. _Was all of this… just because I lost my temper, like Flame? This is terrible!_ Spyro thought as he dodged a cannonball but was caught by one of HR-D's claws. Cynder smacked a cannonball at the claw and it released Spyro. Suddenly, a second hand appeared on HR-D with a much larger bomb. The two hands launched their bombs and they exploded in midair, hurting the allies. Spyro puts up a black and red barrier around himself and Cynder, who were about to be hit by the purple energy waves, and the attack gets reflected back. Spyro tries to form a weak smile, but the two dragons are struck by dual lasers from HR-D.

"Gah! Stop making up this instant!" Peacock yells as the HR-D begins to fire cannonballs, lasers, and launches its two bombs. Spyro and Cynder gather up energy in their hands, and release dual golden beams, countering the attack and causing the HR-D to explode. Peacock slowly floats down to the ground. "NOOOOO! My precious robot! That's enough! This is where I draw a fine line! There's one thing you've forgotten, and that's this!" Peacock pulls out the dark gem. Spyro slaps his forehead and groans. Cynder also frowns. "Now dark gem… lend me your power!" A black aura swirls around the dark gem as binary code begins to encircle Peacock. In seconds, he's transformed into a much larger version of himself. A barrier of binary code (A/N: In case you didn't know, binary code is merely the numbers 1 and 0). "Now you shall taste the agony of defeat!"

Peacock's hand glows with binary energy. A targeting icon appears on Spyro, who stares at in amazement. Peacock suddenly launches a laser from his eyes. "SPYRO!" Cynder yells and knocks him away from the attack with her tail. Spyro slowly comes to and rights himself. Peacock's hand glows again. This time, four missiles appear and spiral in different directions. The missiles then double over and converge on the allies, colliding and damaging them. Meta-Knight flies up to Peacock and tries to slash him with his sword, but the barrier merely absorbs the attack. Peacock laughs and a targeting icon appears on Meta-Knight, followed by a laser which scores a direct hit on him. Cynder growls at Peacock in frustration. Peacock just laughs again and four more missiles appear, damaging Cynder as she plummets to the ground.

Seeing this, Spyro began to get angry. He raced at Peacock, his hands flowing with electric energy and slammed them into the barrier. The entire field flashed white after which Peacock's barrier exploded. "Knock it off, you pathetic excuse for a creature!" Peacock yells as he vanishes. He reappears in the center of the arena, and targeting icons appear on all the allies. He fires out spiraling missiles and Spyro and Cynder both decide to hit theirs back at Peacock, damaging him. But they have little time to celebrate as Peacock places much large targeting icons on all the allies. This time, massive purple energy balls fly out and collide with Waddle Doo, King Dedede, and Meta-Knight. Spyro easily dodges his, but notices Cynder is about to be hit. He throws himself in front of the energy ball and knocks her away, taking the hit. He spirals to the ground with a thud, before struggling up to his feet. Peacock creates another barrier.

Peacock's hands both glow and the four wire tentacles appear. They begin slamming down on the ground, each slam creating a shockwave. The allies are all electrocuted by the tentacles. Spyro cries out, his entire body being pushed to limits it can't handle, while suffering fatal wounds and burns. Peacock retracts the tentacles and proceeds to shoot large blasts of binary code at the allies. They all dodge the onslaught with easy and Cynder slams Peacock's barrier with her tail, breaking it. Peacock proceeds to fire a combination of energy blasts, lasers and missiles. The allies all rush at Peacock, dodging the attacks to the best of their abilities. Before he can be hit, Waddle Doo fires a beam, then King Dedede throws his mallet and Meta-Knight his sword. Spyro and Cynder fire off a few rounds of convexity breath before they are all struck by the onslaught of energy. Their attacks converge on Peacock and he begins flashing white. "This… this can't be over! NOOOOOOOOOO!"

At that moment, Peacock suddenly stops flashing. The allies stare at this in shock, and are suddenly met by a horde of streams of electricity. Spyro and Cynder are trapped within the attacks and roar painfully. A magical staff appears in midair and spins around, revealing an all too familiar blue robot. "P-P-Pandora!" Spyro yells in disbelief. Pandora ignores him and turns to Peacock.

"Poor, pathetic robot… you were almost on the ropes… allow me to give you a hand!" Pandora spins her staff around, and the dark gem flies out of Peacock, crashing against the surface of the ground. Peacock's eyes widened in disbelief. Pandora floats over and grabs Peacock, then spins her magical staff around; they disappear. The energy surrounding Spyro and Cynder faded and they fell to the ground, gasping for air. The other four allies stare at the scene in disbelief.

"After all that effort… he got away?" Kirby yelled. Spyro staggered to his feet, clenching his teeth from the pain.

"G-G-Guy… he's an annoying human that's been causing us nothing but trouble." Spyro muttered as he walked next to Cynder, still unconscious. He surveys the ruins and hisses, "this was all my fault. I don't understand…" A black hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder and pushed him down.

"This is all my fault. I thought if the two of us fought… we could destroy the stadium and get Peacock's emeralds. And it worked… but I hadn't expected _this_ to happen." Spyro frowned.

"You… you made me so angry! I don't understand it… I thought you were as depressed by this whole 'arena' thing too!" Cynder shook her head. Spyro slammed his fist hard against the ground. "And then… you attacked me… when I'd made it clear I wasn't going to attack you! That… that did it…" He said, tears filling his eyes again.

"D-D-don't cry… please… I was doing I thought would get us out of there! I never intended to hurt you! I promise!" Spyro looked at her.

"You also promised that you wouldn't keep anymore secrets from me, remember?!" Spyro growled, "And look how fabulously _that_ worked out!" He turned his back on her. There was a long pause, and Cynder stood up.

"You're right… I'm not much of a friend at all… I suppose I _do_ deserve everything you dished out at me. Spyro turned his head around. "But… what's important is that you… saved me." Spyro finished the sentence off in unison with her. "And that's why I can't stay mad at you…" They said, as if their every thoughts were linked together. Knowing this, Spyro began to smile.

"Maybe… I _did_ overreact a little bit… no, scratch that… I overreacted too much." Spyro said. Cynder nodded.

"And I should have told you my plan using the scouters… I completely forgot we both had them." Spyro held is in his hand, and then crushed it. He extended his paw forward.

"Do you forgive me…?" There was a longer pause, which made Spyro nervous. But rather than shaking his paw, Cynder walked beside him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Aww… how touching! Why doesn't that kind of stuff happen to me?" King Dedede says, as they all break into laughter. As the laughter died down, a thought popped into Cynder's head.

"Oh my god… I completely forgot… what happened to everyone else?!" Spyro stared at her, confused. "Don't you remember…? They had gotten caught in the middle of our attacks!"

"Well, now that you mention it… I suppose it _is_ strange that they just sort of vanished. I mean… I don't think we kill…" At that moment, a flurry of fireballs and shadow balls collided with the two dragons, followed by a blast of yellow lightning, a white energy ball, a ball of blue electricity, four streams of crimson flames, a gun shot, and a large plasma energy ball. "I think I found them…" Spyro grunted. He slowly got up, moaning in pain and faced the other allies; who were quite angry.

"Dude… you almost killed us! Wait… you…" Flame exclaimed. "YOU BLEW UP HALF THE PLANET! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!" Spyro shrugged.

"I wasn't…" He walked over to Cynder and helped her to her feet. "But everything's cool now…"

"How can you say that?! Look at you two… you guys look liked you got in a fight with kitchen appliances and lost!" Ember exclaimed, "And you _hurt_ us… _badly_. And yet you can say everything's cool with a smug, happy-go-lucky grin on your face?!"

"I wouldn't see why not…" Cynder responded. "We were both fools… and we realized that. So we made up." Ember screamed and charged after the two dragons, who both looked at each other and ran, screaming at Ember as she fired off rounds of flame breath.

"At least tell me Peacock is dead…" Zero exclaimed, turning to Meta-Knight.

"I would like two… but I would be _lying_… and that's most dishonorable. A blue robot your friends called 'Pandora' appeared and took him before he exploded. Zero swore, but his yelling was masked by the identical word yelled out by the two startled dragon-gods being chased by their angry friend.

"Wow… for once _I'm_ not the one that's getting chased around by someone!" Bowser exclaimed, smiling a wide, toothy grin. Luigi stared at the scene in disbelief.

"You know…" He began as Spyro and Cynder were running toward him, "wouldn't it just be easier if the two of them _overpowered_ Ember? They could easily do it." At that moment, Spyro and Cynder stopped. The turned around, and bolted to each side of Ember, grabbing her legs and then dragging her back toward the rest of the group.

"LET. ME. GO! I'M GONNA KILL YOU, SPYRO!" She cried, slamming her fists on the ground like a punished child. The other allies just laughed at this.

MEANWHILE…

"So this is it…" A male's voice exclaimed. "I've found the last tool I need to instigate my plan." An eerie red light suddenly reveals a small crater, with a gem sparkling at the bottom. A hand reaches out and grabs it. "I have a Chaos Emerald… I have the magic… and the pawn has the key… all the pieces of the puzzle are fitting together _perfectly_." The red light suddenly disappears, and a female's voice begins to speak.

"What exactly is this _plan_ of yours, master?" The male voice chuckles at the comment.

"I will create the ultimate weapon… and by killing _the girl_ I'll make it invincible! And then we shall conquer the world!" The male voice laughs again. "All I have to do… is wait for the right time…"

"When is this 'time', master?" The female voice asked curiously.

"I can't say _exactly_ when… but I know that it will not come _too_ quickly. It all depends on how fast our enemies can complete their task."

"Wouldn't it be easier if we _helped_ them out, sir? Then maybe we could fool them into thinking we're on their side!"

"Impossible! _He_ knows well of what my plans are… to flop sides at this point in time could get _them_ suspicious. And the last thing I want is for any of them to figure out my plan."

"That is a good point…" The female voice responds. "But what if we helped them out, while remaining hidden?"

"BAH! Impossible! The dangers they must go through would require our presence to alter! For now… simply just watch… and wait."

"As you wish, master." The male voice hummed slightly.

"By the way… did you manage to apprehend the Maverick before he was destroyed?" The female voice now chuckled.

"It was the easiest task I've ever been assigned. And my timing was just perfect! The Maverick was about to explode until I reversed the damage with my always wonderful magical powers." The male voice began to laugh again.

"Good… I want _everyone_ to witness my plan! And that Maverick has just the kind of skills to make it so!" The two voices laughed in unison.

END CHAPTER 30! 

**There's just two more left, folks!  
**

Next time, Chapter 31- You know what… you'll have to wait to find out the title, too!


	32. Heating Things Up!

**Author's Note: Here's the next chapter… ripe for the picking! In case you feel like knowing it, these recent chapters and ones following are very epic… and **_**very**_ **centered around Spyro/Cynder for a reason… big reason… but I couldn't tell you… that'd spoil the ending! Anyways… enjoy  
**

**Chapter 31- Heating Things Up!**

PEACH'S CASTLE, 0850 HOURS

Sleep; it was something that hadn't come easy to anyone for awhile. Since the night spent in the hotel at the M.R.U.N., the allies had not actually spent a night sleeping. So what did they do? They collapsed on the couches in the living room of Peach's Castle, exhausted. Every one of them all slept differently; whether it was Bowser who mumbled about beating Mario and kidnapping Peach in his sleep, or Spyro who was forced to sleep on the floor ("Blood stains don't come off this fabric; heal yourself or take a spot on the floor!" Peach had yelled at him when they arrived. Spyro chose not to heal, as punishment for his ridiculous actions. Cynder mimicked the action, and was curled up next to him.), or Pikachu who slept curled up like a little fuzzy ball, gnawing his arm (he's probably dreaming about food, poor guy), or like Zero who had a pair of sunglasses over his eyes ("These eyes see nothing _but_ light!" he exclaimed), or even like Luigi, who instead of snoring, yelled out "lasagna, spaghetti, macaroni" and several other types of Italian food. The point is; it didn't matter, Severus could wait; sleep was needed. Well, everyone needed it except Epsilon, who was talking with Nightshade (A/N: Tray, in case you've forgotten) and Dr. Lelenthal.

"Mt. BlowsItsTop… that volcano is the most unstable one in the world! Why would a dark gem be there?" Epsilon asked Dr. Lelenthal.

"I received a report from the nearby town of Meadow Way in Mobius that the volcano has erupted five times in the last week! The dark gem may be speeding up the magma-building process." Nightshade hums deeply.

"That much lava… imagine the land you could make with it. A new island… more space for people to live… Severus is wasting a valuable resource." He proclaims. Dr. Lelenthal clears his throat.

"There is _one_ thing of importance about this gem… Severus has wised up… he's put _three_ Mavericks in charge of it. All are very skilled in the use of fire, like Dragoon." Epsilon nodded, thinking to himself, he motioned for the other two dragons to leave and they did. Epsilon turned and stared at the group. They were still fast asleep, and he couldn't bare the loud noises some of them were making. He walked into the kitchen; hoping to find something to eat.

4 HOURS LATER…

Spyro was twitching slightly. His eyes slowly opened and he lifted his head up and surveyed the scene. _Boy… were we all tired._ He thought. He coiled his head around and noticed Cynder, who was resting her head against his back. _I'm sure that someone would say "aw, how cute" or something… and I completely agree!_ He thought again as he slumped his head back on the floor. But before he could close his eyes again, he was yanked upward by Epsilon. "Hey! I'm trying to get some shut eye here!" He growled.

"You were awake… don't play games with me. The next dark gem has been found… we need to leave." Spyro yawned and weaseled out of Epsilon's grip.

"Dark gems can wait… I need a lazy day…" As Spyro turned around, he noticed Cynder was now awake; the sudden movement must've caused her head to hit the ground, waking her. She yawns and then stretches out her legs.

"What's going on, guys?" She asked as she blinked her eyes multiple times, trying to wake them up.

"The next dark gem. It's in a highly active volcano… that… and we have twelve hours before the volcano erupts, destroying the nearby town." Spyro's eyes widened.

"WHAT?! Why didn't you tell me that before?!" he shouted. Bowser's eyes suddenly bolted open, and he fell on the floor with a thud, waking up the other allies, who all started complaining about still needing sleep.

"Graw… what happened? I was having the _best_ dream!" Bowser groaned.

"Did it involve you kidnapping me in any way, shape, or form?" Peach asked, glaring at him.

"NO…!" Bowser roared out, startling everyone, "…okay, it did…" Peach shook her head.

"You're hopeless." She commented, turning her back on him. Epsilon cleared his throat.

"Listen up… we've got twelve hours to go inside Mt. BlowsItsTop and destroy the dark gem before the volcano has its biggest eruption yet; it'll easily destroy the Meadow Way if we don't stop it!"

"Well… what are we doing sitting around?" Shadow growled. "Let's get out there and kick some Maverick butt!" The allies charged out of the room. Zero slowly followed them.

"Why do I suddenly have this feeling that something bad is gonna happen…" He mumbles, walking out of the castle and slamming the door behind him.

GATE'S LABORATORY…

"I HATE THOSE TWO DRAGONS!!!" Severus yelled, punching a nearby statue of Bowser left over from his castle and obliterating it. He shakes his head. "I don't understand it… everything should've been going perfectly! But Yammark failed, Dragoon failed, and now Peacock has failed! There are only two dark gems that aren't in the laboratory… and only one Chaos Emerald!" Severus storms into the Core Lab and walks over to a cabinet. He slowly reaches a hand out and opens it. His eyes widen in shock. "This… my dark gem… what… NO! THAT BLASTED SCIENTIST GOT RID OF IT WHILE I WAS GONE!!!!" He screamed. "The entire project is about to collapse… there's no hope… if I can't hold them off here, I'm finished. That gem was my only way to the Final Weapon!" Crazed laughter was suddenly heard from across the room. Severus glanced in his direction, smiling.

"Ah… so you've arrived. I didn't think you survived their little number on Popstar, Albert." A shadowy figure appeared facing Severus; nothing could be made out except a pair of eyes. "Now… did you manage to save the data Peacock had worked on, Albert?" The figure nodded.

"The nightmares? I've got them… and I've done some very 'special' modifications." An evil grin appears and the figure reaches a pale hand out and presses a red button. A large chamber next to the Nightmare Ray opens a hatch. Eight purple feet suddenly land on the ground; Severus's smile widens. Standing before him are two dragon nightmares. "As you can see…" The mysterious figure began, "I analyzed the magical DNA present in _them_… and converted it to fit these two. They should be able to equalize the strength of those retched dragons!" Severus laughed.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha! There is still hope! From deep within my cerebral cortex comes the grandest of all schemes! Those allies have had it to easy… they've been outnumbering the foe… but I'm about to change all of that. Did you fix up those pathetic biometal-wielding dragons the blue girl had delivered to us?" The shadowy figure grinned again, and pressed the red button once more. Six new hatches opened, and out stepped six robots. "Ah… foolish dragons; so easily manipulated! Tell me Zane… how do you feel about facing off against your rival one last time?" The dragon bearing Model Hx's eyes snap open, and he smiles a wide, toothy grin.

"I feel… like crushing that weakling!" Zane yelled as his dual sabers dislodged from his hands. Severus laughs again.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha! This is excellent! But I am not yet done… there's one thing missing; a Trump Card if you may. I analyzed that fool who owned the castle I made this lab from; he's suffered severe brain damage. By taking a DNA sample… I have recreated him… as evil as he used to be! Oh, Bowser… come in here, if you please!" The laboratory rumbled, and Bowser came storming through the electronic doors. He laughs.

"Bwa ha ha ha ha ha! It's great to be back! What do you need?" Severus smiled.

"How would you like the chance to crush your old self… and his merry little band of 'heroes'?" Bowser laughed once again.

"The chance to crush them?! I wouldn't pass it up for anything! Better yet… I'll bring my best men for the job! GET IN HERE… ALL OF YOU!" The door's slammed apart, and in stormed eight much smaller Koopas; The Koopalings and Bowser Jr. Kamek and Bowser's older Magikoopa assistant, Kammy flew in behind them. Next up was a Koopatrol, but his armor was all black and red and his eyes glowed an eerie red as well. Following him were the five Koopa Bros. and Paragoomba. The door slammed shut.

"Bleh heh heh heh! What is it you desire of us, your nastiness?" Kammy asked. Bowser laughed.

"We're all gonna get the chance to wail on those weaklings that are being a thorn in Severus's side!" Bowser's troops let out cheers. The Koopatrol spoke up.

"Where exactly are they going, your unpleasantness?" He asked.

"That's a good question, Killer. Where are we heading, Severus?" Severus laughed.

"Mt. BlowsItsTop. That's where it seems like those pathetic heroes are heading." Alicia laughed.

"This'll be a snap! A piece of cake! With our new upgrades, we'll be unstoppable!" The shadowy figure laughed again.

"And while they do that… I think I can solve your problem with the Final Weapon, Severus." Severus laughed.

"This is it… my ace up the sleeve… my ultimate armada! Go forth and lay those fools to rest! ESPECIALLY MY CHILDREN!" He yells. The Spyro nightmare just laughed.

"Oh, please… our first mission and it has to be something as simple as wailing on our flesh forms… pathetic." Severus raises his hands in the air and they all disappeared. Severus smiles yet again.

"They can't win… not with the number of minions I sent there… but I need to be prepared for the impossible. Colonel! Red!" Colonel and Red stormed through the doors. "You two IDIOTS have done NOTHING to try and stop those idiotic heroes! You round up Mario, Sonic and Megaman. I want you to head to…" He leans in close to Colonel and whispers something to him… "Got it?" He asked. Colonel nodded and walked out of the room. Severus shook his head. "Six emeralds…"

"You're doomed…" A voice echoed out through the laboratory. Severus turned around, startled, and Guy stepped out of the shadows. "Poor, poor Severus… you can feel it, can't you? Vraël is breathing down your neck. Your end is coming."

"What are you talking about, you wretched fool?!" He snarled. Guy just laughed.

"Let me tell you something, Severus. Six Chaos Emeralds… that's all the two of them need. Throughout time… only 5 dragons will ever know the 'Sacred Six' attack. The first one's dead… the second two don't exist… and won't for awhile. But the last two… are slipping right through your fingertips!"

"_I_ know that… _you_ apparently know that… but _they_ don't! As long as they don't, I still have a fighting chance!" Guy just laughed again. "_Quit your laughing this instant! Who the hell are you to waltz in here and tell me I am to die?_" Guy was laughing uncontrollably.

"I am the greatest being to walk this planet… there's a little hint. But good luck guessing… no one; not Vic, not Tray, and not those blasted dragons know _my_ secret. You have to die… Your death is key for _my_ plans." Severus glared at him.

"What plans do you possibly have that involve me…?"

"Not _you_… fool; your oh-so-powerful gem. Combined with Spyro's scepter, I shall bring back all I had taken away from myself… all everyone had taken away from me! Sure… it won't be _I_ who is the one causing it… but I shall be controlling him! HA HA HA HA HA!" Guy laughed as he vanished.

_Destruction; a universe lost; a society damned. One creature; everything taken; cursed himself._

Spyro shivered; these powerful words were echoing through his head. _What… does this mean…?_ He thought.

_A madman; one goal; bring back what was lost. A pawn; his life, reincarnated; his key; his plan. Dedication; killing it or bringing it to his side. _

…_You are not safe._

_Spyro was standing in the middle of a burning field. The sight he saw was horrifying; Ember, Flame, and even, Cynder, staring at him; their eyes, blood red. Towering above them was a human. His long, black hair extended just past his neck; he wore a fancy red suit, and was laughing maniacally. His friends slowly began walking toward him; backing him against a rock. He cried out for help; but saw his newest friends trapped in a steel cage. Then, there was a loud bang, and Spyro's eyes went hollow. They rolled backwards, inside his head and he collapsed on to the ground. A bullet hole was clearly visible; straight through the heart. _

"_You're mine, Spyro. Mine… my life, and my future! You shall join me… or perish… and then, I shall have my former glory, reinstated!"_

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Spyro's eyes exploded open. He realized he was sprawled on the floor of the same bus the allies had used to get to the BeanBean Kingdom. He noticed his face was damp, and realized that a few tears had fallen down them. Ember, Flame, Cynder and Peach were staring at him. He stood up, panting.

"Spyro… are you okay?" Ember asked. Spyro nodded. "Are you sure…? You've been sprawled on the floor yelling me, Flame, and Cynder's names for awhile now." Spyro frowned.

"I-I did…?" Cynder walked beside him.

"Yeah… and you started crying… I think there's something wrong with you." She said, scornfully. Spyro frowned.

"It was… just a bad dream, that's all. How much further do we have to go?" He asked Peach, trying to change the subject.

"Actually, we just arrived." Spyro let out a sigh of relief.

"And how much time until the volcano explodes?" He asked again.

"We've got 8 hours." She said sternly. Spyro nodded and exited the bus. He follows Cynder to a small cluster of benches, where the other allies are seated. "Alright…" Peach declared, "let's go stop that volcano!" The allies let out cheers and charge toward it. Spyro glanced upward at the sky. He shivers and charges after them.

MT. BLOWSITSTOP, 1650 HOURS (8 hours till eruption)

They were all standing in front of a giant duo of rock doors. "So… how do we get in, slick?" Doopliss asked Epsilon. Epsilon just gave him a funny look that said 'how the hell should I know'. Doopliss quickly zipped his lips. Bowser was pacing in front of the rock doors. He stopped every so often to gaze at them intently. He walked up to them and tapped them with his finger.

"I've got it!" He cried. Shadow merely smirked at that statement and elbowed Dragoon.

"This should be good… and I need a laugh anyway." He exclaimed. Bowser firmly plants his two feet in front of the door, raises his hands in the air, takes a deep breath, and…

"…**OPEN SESAME!!!**" He screams. The allies all stare at Bowser, wide-eyed. "What… it worked in Indiana Toad!" They all bust into spontaneous laughter (except Epsilon who just rolls his eyes).

"Open sesame…?! You've gotta be kidding me!" Luigi exclaims. Suddenly, the ground begins rumbling. The two stone doors explode, knocking into Shadow and Luigi. The allies all stare at Bowser, wide-eyed.

"But he… but you… but it…" Zero began. "…Smartass…" He finishes, walking through the door. The others follow, murmuring about Bowser's incredible feat. They end up on a large, rocky cliff. Several meters below them, orange, bubbling lava was swirling around; massive puffs of black smoke and tiny embers flying up toward the ceiling. "The lava levels aren't that high in this region of the volcano…" Zero comments, confused. Epsilon shakes his head.

"We're on the edges of the volcano… once we get close to the center; the rooms will have more lava in them." Bowser took in a deep breath.

"Ah! Smell that lovely burning stench! It reminds me of the good ol' days! Fighting Mario and the Green 'Stache on some arena I'd built over the lava! Good times… good times!" He says. Luigi just rolls his eyes.

"Alright…" He begins, "how do we get across… the bridge is out." He comments, motioning to the abyss in front of them, and a tiny platform with a door on the other side. The allies all turn and look at the five dragons and smile.

"What's with that look…?" Flame comments. "I do _not_ like that look!" In a matter of seconds, the five dragons are carrying the allies across the fiery canyon; one at a time. Flame groans as he struggles with Luigi. "Luigi, man… you gotta lay off the seconds at dinner!" He complains, tossing him up to the platform and returning to get someone else. Ember effortlessly carries Pikachu on her back. Cynder grabs White Mage, and almost drops into the lava. White Mage whacks Cynder on the head with her mallet.

"Hey! I swear I'll hit you harder! Save the weight jokes for Bowser!"

"That wasn't (cough) a joke! (wheeze)" Cynder pants, dropping White Mage on the platform and collapsing from the effort. Spyro, meanwhile, is handling Doopliss, Shadow, AND Peach at the same time. Finally, Epsilon brings up the rear, effortlessly carrying Dragoon and Zero, and levitating Bowser in front of him. When they're all safely across, they proceed into the next room, a long, spiraling, rocky walkway hovering above a pit of lava. "Well… that's ominous enough to suggest we're super close." Cynder exclaims, as she begins to charge up the platform. The others just mimic the action.

MT. BLOWSITSTOP CORE, 1720 HOURS (7.5 hours till eruption)

They walk through the doors, and instantly realize there's no ground below them. "Well… this was unexpected." Shadow exclaims, standing on the 'nothing'. He folds his arms. "Hmph… how clichéd." He proclaims as he suddenly plummets down onto a large, caged, circular platform, suspended above the lava. Several other allies fall down with him, and the rest find means of safely landing on the platform.

"Well… now what do we do?" Zero asks. Suddenly, a rooster crowing echoes through the room. The allies quickly jump to one side, as a streak of flames collides with the ground. It forms into a robotic chicken. "Burn Rooster…! So you're guarding this place?" Suddenly, a giant ball of flames lands in the arena, accompanied by a second streak of flames. "Three Mavericks?! Woah! Severus is smartening up!" Zero exclaims as the two other figures reveal themselves as a giant dinosaur, and a second bird. "Mattrex! Blaze Heatnix! Figured I'd find you two here!"

"Well… Zero, you've certainly found yourself a weird group of friends to pal around with!" Heatnix responds, smirking. "And shame on you, Dragoon! You could've fought with us three masters of the flame; but you decide to side with these punks? Pathetic!" Dragoon rolls his eyes.

"Heard it before… not gonna change my opinion, bird!" Mattrex roars. The allies all cover their ears.

"Enough talk! Let's _heat things up_!" Mattrex forms into a ball of fire again and begins jumping around the arena. Zero easily dodges this and jumps up, clinging to the ceiling. He uses the Hyoroga ability, causing three large ice shards to land on Mattrex, damaging him. Ember and Spyro combine their water breaths, dousing the flames around Mattrex and causing him to freeze in place. Pikachu uses a thunderbolt on Mattrex, who growls and jumps out of the arena. Several boulders begin raining down from the sky, flattening White Mage and Dragoon. Burn Rooster swoops down into the arena and throws his hands up in the air. Instantly, jets of flames shoot up through the grates of the arena. Spyro puts a barrier up around him, redirecting the attack at Epsilon who destroys the attack with a mighty slash of his sword. He forms two ice daggers in his hands and launches them at Rooster, damaging him. Burn Rooster unleashes a jet of flames from his burning tail, hitting Flame and Cynder. Cynder, however, absorbs the energy and uses it to increase the strength of her own black flames. Rooster easily dodges it, and lights himself up, running into Spyro, Luigi and Cynder.

Doopliss waves his Leaf Umbrella around and fires at Rooster, who is slammed against the wall. Doopliss performs a ghostly headbutt on Rooster, knocking him into the air and into Ember. Ember opens her mouth and unleashes a stream of _ice breath_. She stares, wide-eyed at the feat. "Oh my gosh! Did you see that?! _I _used ice breath! _Me_! This is awesome!" Heatnix suddenly fires out streams of flames from his wings, singing Ember and knocking her into Flame. "Oof! Thanks for the cushy landing!" Flame grumbles and gets ready to attack Heatnix with his flame breath; but instead unleashes a blast of _electricity_.

"Woah… sweet, man!" He exclaims as he dodges Heatnix. Spyro casts blizzard, heavily damaging Heatnix. Cynder melees him while he's frozen from Spyro's spell. White Mage tosses her mallet in the air, and then uses some of her mana to change it into a flaming meteor. It slams into Heatnix, who begins flashing white.

"This isn't over! I'm not done yet!" Heatnix yells, as he explodes. Mattrex slams down into the arena again, and unleashes a stream of flames from his mouth. Shadow jumps out of the way and scores a hit on Mattrex with his rifle. Epsilon and Shadow then pull out Chaos Emeralds.

"Chaos… SPHERE!" They yell as they shoot energy spheres at Mattrex. Mattrex begins flashing white.

"This was so predictable!!!" He yells as he explodes. Burn Rooster dives down into the arena, and a wave of flames ripple out, hitting all of the allies, except Bowser who ducks into his shell to avoid it. He grabs Luigi and uses his Mr. Hurly Gloves ability to chuck him at Rooster, damaging him. Luigi then slams Rooster with his mallet, while Peach whacks Rooster with her parasol. Dragoon uses blaze kick, igniting his leg and kicking Rooster. Rooster crows again.

"Gah! I've gotten so weak! Next time, Maverick Hunter, next time!" He yells as he explodes. Bowser pumps his fist in the air in victory.

"Oh yeah! Finally an easy boss!" But his cheers are interrupted by a yelp of pain. Flame collapses on the ground, a large burn mark evident on his back. Shadow rolls his eyes.

"Boy… we sure are popular with the enemies… aren't we?" A large, cloaked figure jumps into the arena. "Who the heck are you?"

"BWA HA HA HA! I am your end, of course! You shall all fight me… and lose!" The figure proclaims. He suddenly unleashes a stream of flames that circle around him, creating a barrier.

"You know… that deep voice seems _oddly_ familiar… but I can't put my wing on it…" Cynder exclaims, as she quickly dodges a fireball from the figure. The figure jumps in the air and slams into the ground. Fast moving shockwaves ripple out, tripping up the allies. Spyro flies over the shockwaves and slams his tail against the barrier, doing absolutely nothing. The figure grabs Spyro, and throws him into White Mage. They both fly into the wall. The figure shoots several fireballs into the air. The hit the ground and explode, but they are all easily dodged. The figure suddenly takes a deep breath in, _inhaling_ the flame barrier, and releases rings of fire. Epsilon skillfully flies through them and uppercuts the figure with his swords. The figure slumps on the ground.

"Not bad, rookie! Time for round two!" The cloaked figure whistles and a hovercraft appears. He hops in it and breaks down the door opposite the one the allies entered. They all begin to give chase, climbing the cage and jumping up to the door. They find the figure waiting on the other side of the door. "Try to catch me, losers!" He taunts as he speeds off ahead of them. The allies begin to give chase, Bowser spinning in his shell to keep up with the others. A ball of electricity falls out the bottom of the hovercraft and slams against the ground. Waves of electricity fly out at the allies. Seeing an opportunity, Spyro grabs Cynder and uses his strength to toss her above the shockwaves, and at the hovercraft. Cynder then slams the hovercraft rapidly with her earth flail and ice sword attacks. "GRAH!" The figure yells as the hovercraft explodes, knocking him through the door. The allies all run through, and emerge atop another circular, cage platform, but without the walls this time. They look up and see the dark gem, suspended in a cage hanging quite close to the ceiling. The figure laughs.

"Who are you, anyway? And what do you want?" Peach yells out.

"Maybe this'll help you!" The figure pulls off its cloak, revealing a second Bowser. The allies all stare at Bowser, then Evil Bowser, then Bowser again. Pikachu rubs his eyes and stares at the two Bowsers.

"Hey! Imposter! What do you think you're doing?!" Bowser growls. Evil Bowser just laughs.

"Really… because from where I'm standing… you look like the imposter! The _real_ Bowser wouldn't side with worthless punks like these guys!" Spyro growls at the insult. "The _real _Bowser would side with his loyal minions and family!" Evil Bowser snaps his fingers. The Koopalings and Bowser Jr. all jump down into the arena. Bowser's eyes widen. Next, Paragoomba, Kamek, Kammy and Killer appear. Bowser's eyes widen more.

"KAMMY?! What are you doing siding with an imposter, you old hag?!" Bowser asks.

"Bleh heh heh heh! But you are no where near as enjoyable as when you're evil, your imposterness!" Evil Bowser laughs.

"And… let's not forget…!" Five different colors whirl past the allies.

"RED!"

"Black!"

"GREEN!"

"Yellow!"

"And, um… blue too!"

"And we are…" The Koopa Bros. all point at the allies. "THE KOOPA BROS!" Evil Bowser laughs yet again.

"Guys… have we even been outnumbered in a two-way battle yet?" Luigi asks, scared. Spyro shakes his head.

"Oh… but it gets _much worse_!" Roars an arrogant voice. Two giant purple lasers sweep through the allies. Zane descends into the arena. "This is it! With our new upgrades… we'll be invincible!" Zane laughs.

"Spyro… you don't think this is Guy again… do you? I mean, he _gave_ Zane the biometal!" Zero proclaims.

"Oh… not at all!" Roars a familiar voice. A purple Spyro descends into the arena. The allies' eyes widen in shock.

"SPYRO! You've been nightmared?!" Cynder roars; purple flames suddenly strike her in the back.

"Don't speak so soon, little Cynder!" Cries a Cynder nightmare. The allies are all dumbstruck. "It shall be _us_ who buries _you all!_" The two nightmares disappear. Bowser Jr. starts things off by whipping out his magic paintbrush. He waves it around and several purple Magnum Bills fly out of them. They home in on Bowser and Spyro, who begin frantically running around the arena to shake the missiles. Cynder tries to attack a Magnum Bill, but is tackled to the ground by Alicia.

"You're not going anywhere, weakling!" Alicia slams the ground with her hand and she and Cynder are engulfed by a wall of energy. Cynder screams out for help. Ember tries to attack Alicia but the barrier merely knocks her towards Killer, who punches Ember. The spikes attached to his armored knuckles slice through her scales damaging her. Killer whips out a mace and slams Cynder with it. Bowser's youngest Koopaling, Larry, shoots a fireball in the air. It suddenly magically grows bigger and flies into White Mage. White Mage puts up a bubble shield, harmlessly deflecting the attack. Nightmare Cynder appears and swipes the air with her hand. A purple energy crescent appears and careens into Shadow and Epsilon. Bowser and Evil Bowser fly past them, spinning in their shells. Evil Bowser emerges from his and unleashes a stream of flames from his mouth. The flaming Bowser spins out of control, and collides with Luigi. Alix is now chasing after Ember. Suddenly, her halberd transforms into a giant ice lance which she rams Ember with, slicing her. She swings her halberd around like Pandora would. Ice shards begin to rain from the sky. Pikachu tries to deflect them by using iron tail, but finally just dodges them with a quick attack. Doopliss is now running away from Black and Red, who are chasing after him with their shells. Spyro jumps in and uses his ice sword breath, deflecting the attacks.

"Not bad… but try this on for size!" Zane yells as he and Nightmare Spyro combine beams of purple energy. Spyro puts up a barrier and tries to push back against the beam, gritting his teeth from the effort. Epsilon tries to attack the two, but Thorn steps in. His double-barrel blaster transforms into a rapid-fire missile launcher and he begins firing. The missiles overwhelm Epsilon and he crashes into the ground. Spyro's barrier finally breaks and the remaining missiles, along with the energy beam, collide with him. He's knocked into Ludwig von Koopa, who takes out his magic wand and casts a spell. A large chunk of the nearby cliff dislodges itself and crashes into Spyro. He roars as a cracking sound is heard. White Mage and Luigi are now volleying a giant fireball back and forth with Wendy O and Lemmy Koopa. Frieze jumps in the middle of the fighting and forms a hand sign. The fire ball disappears, only to reappear behind the two allies; who are caught of guard and hit by the attack. Evil Bowser now Bowser Bombs Flame, who retaliates by uppercutting Evil Bowser. Evil Bowser flies into the air, and is knocked away by Zane, who was hit by Doopliss's Leaf Umbrella.

Meanwhile, Peach jumps over Blue and ducks under Green. She whacks Green with her parasol, knocking him into Blue. Peach is then hit by some geometry symbols from Kamek. Kamek dodges a stream of flames from Dragoon and Epsilon and fires a beam of geometry symbols, hitting them both. Zero is now trying to counter Nightmare Spyro's shadow balls with his Z-Buster. Eliza steps in and blasts Zero with her X-Buster. The two dragon nightmares suddenly fly next to one another. They swipe the air with their paws and two giant energy crescents appear. They merge into a giant crescent, which is slammed at the other fighters. The villains quickly dodge the attack but the allies aren't so lucky. They collide with the cliff and collapse on the arena grounds. Alicia then slams the ground again. Boulders begin to rain down from the sky. Ember flies into the air to dodge it, but Eliza's X-Buster suddenly quadruples itself. She fires out four streams of electricity which nail Ember. She screams as she plummets toward the lava.

"EMBER!" Flame yells and he jumps off the platform to save her. Evil Bowser notices this, and slams the ground, sending a shockwave after them. Flame grabs Ember, and turns around to head back, when the shockwave collides with him.

"NO! EMBER! FLAME!" Spyro yells as the two plummet into the magma with tremendous force. A split screen view of each individual ally's face appears; followed by the grinning faces of the villains. Spyro drops to his knees. "No… this can't be… no… no… no… no…" Spyro grabs his head in agony, trying not to believe what was happening.

"HAH! So much for your pathetic little dragon-friends!" Alicia yells. Cynder stared at them in shock.

"You… you…"

"What's a matter, Cynder… cat got your tongue? Well let's try and…" Eliza fires off an electric grappling hook and grabs Cynder. "…shake it off!" She yells and she slams the grappling hook to the side. Cynder scrams as she's slammed into the same boiling orange drink as her friends. Spyro's pupils shrink. He suddenly stops shaking his head.

"…" Nightmare Spyro just laughs.

"What's the matter… oh, that's right… we just killed your two best friends and sister. The truth hurts, doesn't it, Spyro?" He taunts. Spyro was speechless. Then, he lifted his head and faced them.

"You can hurt me all you want… you can call me whatever you like…" He gets to his feet. "Burn me, wound me…" A small aura of golden flames begins to form around him. "Torture me… turn me evil… but _**NO ONE PICKS ON **__**MY**__** FRIENDS!**_" He roars and slams Epsilon. Epsilon's eyes go wide as the six Chaos Emeralds drop to the ground. The emeralds begin swirling around the golden dragon and he launches himself into the air. He glares at his enemies, then breaks into a spiraling dive… _into the lava_. He collides with the lava, and it explodes everywhere. Then, nothing happens.

"BWA HA HA HA HA! That was it… all the fancy lights and he just commits suicide?! Some hero he is!" Zane yells, laughing hysterically.

"Did he seriously just… it can't be…" White Mage exclaims. "Are they all… dead?"

END CHAPTER 31!

**Things have gone from good to bad to horrible. The dragons are down for the count, and they took the Chaos Emeralds with them. Can the allies emerge victorious from this battle? Or will Severus finally succeed?**

Next time, Chapter 32- A Heated Rivalry at the Climax


	33. A Heated Rivalry at the Climax!

**Author's Note: Alright… here it is! A quick note in advance that the eight dark gem will not be as epic as certain ones have been… I'm building up for the finale. **

**Chapter 32- A Heated Rivalry at the Climax!**

"Are they truly… dead, master?" A female voice spoke out.

"No… it's physically impossible for them to be dead. They couldn't have died."

"But they all went into _molten lava! _We're talking thousands of degrees, master!" The male voice chuckled.

"If they died… a miraculous transformation would occur. It would benefit us, and doom all of mankind. But it hasn't happened… so unless those wretched gods undid my spell, they're alive. We'll just have to wait and see."

* * *

BACK IN THE VOLCANO…

"I… don't… believe it…" Epsilon growled, clenching his fists. "You all… you killed them?!" Thorn laughed.

"We warned you we were stronger than before, punk! We're going to make you pay for everything you've done to us!" The enemies once again ready to charge the allies, who all prepare to fight; despite being down four of their strongest fighters. Alicia kicks things off by jumping into the air and spinning around with her saber. Small energy crescents fly out everywhere, but the allies easily dodge the attack. Epsilon grabs Alicia and slams her against the cliff wall. His hand glows purple and he slams it against her chest. She screams as she's slammed deep within the wall. Angered by this, Zane raises both his saber and purple bolts of lightning slam into the arena. Epsilon puts up a barrier, dodging them. Epsilon delivers a powerful sweeping kick to Zane, knocking him into White Mage who casts Holy; heavily damaging him. Thorn dives down and punches the ground. Waves of flame envelope the allies; damaging them. Bowser tries to spin into him with his shell, but Evil Bowser jumps in the air and lands on the ground. The ensuing shockwave knocks Bowser into a wall. The allies all back against a corner.

"Argh… they're too tough to hit! There's too many of them!" Luigi yells, dodging fireballs from Iggy and Lemmy Koopa. The allies are then struck by two beams of geometry symbols from Kammy and Kamek. Paragoomba creates a mini tornado with his wings as Frieze hurls daggers at the defenseless allies. They plummet to the ground, creating a large crater. Zane and Alicia were laughing.

"Once you all are out of the way… there's nothing stopping us from enslaving this miserable planet!" He laughs again. Epsilon shook his head.

"Siding with Severus… you cowardous traitors!"

"You guys look like the cowards from where we're standing!" Alicia retaliates, as she fires a beam of ice, freezing Epsilon in his tracks. "Now… this'll only hurt for a second…!" The six dragons form a line. They raise their right arms into the air. Instantly, a ball of red plasma energy begins forming above them.

"We're doomed! DOOMED! What a way to go… fighting with _these_ losers! I'm too young and handsome to die!" Bowser cries. Peach slaps him across the face.

"Get a grip… we're not out of it yet… I think…" The energy ball was now almost as big as Bowser. "At least that energy ball charges up slowly!" Peach comments. "Oh, this is terrible! Why did you have to kill yourself, Spyro?!" Suddenly, the room began rumbling. The lava was bubbling much faster than it'd been before.

"Everything's shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaking! Is this the end?!" Shadow yells. The six evil dragons stop charging up their attack.

"HEY!" Zane roars, "what the hell is going on here?!" Evil Bowser just shrugs. Suddenly, the lava explodes; the molten hot liquid flying everywhere. The villains are pummeled by the lava, as are the allies. Suddenly, two blackened figures are chucked onto the arena platform. They are hard to make out, as their bodies are thoroughly burned by the lava. Dragoon gasps.

"You don't think…" He begins.

"But which of the four are they?!" Their question is soon answered; the two figured are stirring. They stagger to their feet, whimpering from the pain caused by the burns. One of them was heavily panting.

"Wh-what happened… wait… YOU SIX!" The dragon roars. "How dare you try to kill us!"

"That voice… Flame?!" Zero asks. The figure nodded. "So… you… are Ember?" The second figure nods. Zero begins twitching uneasily.

"Where's Spyro… and Cynder?!" Ember asks, horribly worried. Zero frowns and points to the molten lava.

"Cynder was attacked… and Spyro… he must've… sacrificed himself… to save the three of you. But he didn't make it to Cynder, I think…" He responds. A small tear rolls down Ember's cheek.

"HEY! Quit the lovey-dovey reunion… and get blasted to pieces!" Thorn roared. The energy ball was now massive. Zane flies up behind it and slashes it with his sabers. The energy ball flies at the allies. They all scream as their deaths approach them at incredible speeds. Suddenly, a giant stream of lava collides with the energy ball; eradicating it completely. We see a split screen view of the villain's horrified faces and the allies shocked faces. "What _the hell…?_" Thorn growled. Suddenly, an ear-splitting, deafening roar was heard. It was a double voice; half a female, half a male. A figure descends above the allies. The ominous black aura around him scares everyone; Bowser nearly faints. It appears to be a dragon; but its colors are flashing between purple and gold, and black and red. Additionally, the dragon's arms are heavily armored, with spikes jutting out of the armor and spiraling downward. The same is true for the legs. The dragon is wearing a medallion containing a gem in the center; six colors are dancing inside the gem. The dragon is also holding a purple saber in his hands. The dragon's blood red eyes pierce the horrified gazes of all. It snarls, and everyone jumps back, startled. "That… what _is _that?!" Thorn asks, horrified.

"**I told you… I warned you… that **_**no one**_ **my friends. But you **_**ignored**_** me! You were ready to kill them! **_**FOR THAT, YOU PAY THE ULTIMATE PRICE!**_" The dragon lunges at the startled villains and extends his paw forward. A black mist wraps itself around Evil Bowser and is absorbed by Evil Bowser. There is a brief pause, before Evil Bowser explodes in a bright flash of black fire. He snaps his fingers; and suddenly the two nightmares explode like Evil Bowser. "**Hageshii inferuno**!" The dragon yells as molten lava begins swirling around him. Its fiery orange color turns to black as he transforms the lava into two giant, flaming Phoenixes. The Phoenixes burst into an explosion of flames which pelts the villains. Zane raises his sabers in the air and a purple barrier appears around him and his friends.

"What the hell is this…? _Spyro?_" The dragon just laughs and suddenly Zane is tapped on the back. The dragon is breathing right down his neck, smiling.

"**Wrong… I'm Yurai… and you, Zane… are as good as dead**!" The dragon slashes his arm at Zane. The spikes tear through his armor. Suddenly, black energy balls rain down on him. Yurai forms two black energy cubes in his hands. Suddenly, black energy swirls around the enemies and transforms into boxes, which violently electrocute the enemies. Bowser's army all faint from the damage. Thorn fires several blasts from his double-barrel blaster. Yurai's eyes glow a darker red. The blasts stop inches in front of Yurai. They reverse direction, and collide with Thorn, whose armor explodes, savagely burning him. "**Next on death row?**" Yurai calls out as Alicia attempts to uppercut Yurai with her saber. She succeeds in striking only air. Yurai evaporates into a dark mist and reforms around Alicia. He grabs her in a choke hold and presses his hand to her face. She screams as her armor explodes, and she is violently electrocuted. Yurai effortlessly tosses her next to Thorn's unmoving body. Meanwhile, the allies are staring in shock at this.

"What the hell is this!?" Pikachu yells. Epsilon, who's now free from the ice, stares in shock.

"The Sacred Six… I don't believe it…"

"What in the name of god is a Sacred Six?!" Pikachu asks.

"An attack that can only be performed by the most elite and powerful beings in the universe. Only one other being besides Vic and Tray was ever able to use the Sacred Six." He growls. "If a being possess six of the Chaos Emeralds… it can choose to draw out its negative or positive energy to merge with a second creature, depending on the summoner's emotions. If one is feeling emotions of rage, anger, pain, or sorrow, the summoner will draw the emeralds' negative energy; transforming itself into a beast of incredible dark powers. If one is feeling emotions of happiness, joy, love, or excitement, the summoner will draw the emeralds' positive energy; transforming itself into a beast of divine light and beauty." Ember stares at him, tears streaming down her face.

"So that… that _vile_ creature… is… _Spyro_ and… _Cynder?_" Epsilon nods.

"I'm afraid so. The only way to stop the attack is for the summoner to accomplish his goal… which is in this case, killing Zane." Ember gasps.

"This is horrible! Can't Cynder stop him?!" Epsilon shakes his head.

"The summoner is in complete control of the two bodies. I doubt there's a… LOOK OUT!" Epsilon tackles Ember out of the way of fragments of burning armor from Eliza, who slumps on the ground with the other fallen dragons. All that's left now is Zane and Yurai.

"**This is it Zane… you and I! Our rivalry dies today… you've hurt my friends… you caused my brother's egg to hatch prematurely, and I'm gonna make you **_**pay**_!" Yurai raises his saber. Zane raises his and lightning bolts rain down on Yurai. Yurai's saber merely absorbs the attack. Yurai dashes forward, jabbing the saber at incredible speeds and puncturing Zane's armor in many places. Zane stares in horror as he collides with the wall. "**Katsuryoku arekuruu!**" He raises his saber in the air and spears of purple energy begin raining down on Zane. He smiles and suddenly disappears. Yurai stares in shock at this, but a screech is soon heard. Yurai turns to see Zane opposite him. He's grabbing Ember, a saber pressed up to her neck. He speaks out in a raspy, battered voice.

"N-N-Not another step… S-S-Spyro! O-O-Or you're l-l-l-little friend here g-g-gets her throat s-sl-slit!" He presses the saber into Ember. She screams as a small amount of blood begins to trickle down her neck. "N-N-Now… s-s-s-stop y-y-your attack… a-a-and I'll l-l-let your little f-f-f-friend live!" Yurai growled. A female voice suddenly echoes through his head.

_Spyro, snap out of it! You can't just kill Zane like this! Stop this before he hurts Ember!_ A male voice responds to this.

_Stay out of this, Cynder! If I let him go, he'll just continue to do horrible things to you guys! _

_But is Ember's life really worth that?! _ Yurai begins to grab his head. He slowly drifts down to the ground. Zane's grip begins to lighten on Ember. Suddenly, Yurai looks up at Zane, smiling. Ember suddenly grabs Zane's head and slams it against the nearby wall. She gasps at her action and Yurai charges at Zane, pinning him to the ground. He points his saber at Zane's neck.

"N-N-No… this c-c-can't be th-th-the end!" Yurai lifted the blade in the air and slammed it down. But there was no scream of plain; rather, the blade was stopped inches above Zane's neck. "W-W-W-Well… what a-a-are you w-w-w-waiting for… j-j-just put me out of m-m-m-my misery!" He panted. Yurai's eyes widened and he slammed the blade down, but not through Zane; through himself. Yurai flashed white and exploded. Cynder's battered body was catapulted at the allies. Bowser caught her and laid her down.

"What happened in there?!" Cynder pointed next to her. The allies turned to see a second Zane standing, one of his sabers against Ember's neck again.

"H-He had F-F-Frieze c-c-create a shadow clone of h-h-him before h-h-his armor exploded…" She replied, her voice hoarse from her injuries. Zane just laughed.

"You're all such fools… you know that? Cynder, Cynder, Cynder… just look what you made your brother do to himself. He motion with his free hand at the still, unmoving lump opposite them. Cynder gasped in horror. That saber was still embedded in Spyro's chest. "Ha ha ha ha! You thought he just cancelled the attack?! HA! The only way to have done that was to kill me! He _killed_ himself! I don't know what makes _you_ so worth it, Miss Priss!" He spits at Ember, laughing. Tears were streaming down her face. "Spyro, Spyro, Spyro… they'll always say you pitied the lives of those less fortunate. You get these _amazing_ powers… and you waste them to save your weakling friend. It makes no sense. Oh well… it doesn't matter." Zane flies up into the air and grabs the dark gem. "I think its time to move this somewhere else… for safe keeping!" He laughs.

"I think that is quite right… Zane! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!" The allies all stare in horror as Severus appears before them. "Oh… how the mighty hath fallen! I didn't think you'd be able to do it! But, alas… all seems to be at an end for you allies! And you buffoons…" He motions to the other six dragons. Zane's eyes widen.

"W-w-what do you mean 'all seems to be at an end'?" He snarls. Severus laughs.

"I'm saying I have no more use for you… so I shall dispose of you in my prison!" Severus raises both his hands in the air. Boxes of transparent, swirling black and purple color appear around each individual except Severus and the still Spyro. "You shall all enjoy my _lovely_ prison… and then watch as your own nightmares enslave you! Ciao!" He snaps his fingers. The boxes explode, and they all scream as they vanish from the volcano. Severus waves his hand. The dark gem floats up to him.

"I have no use for you as my power source. That 'Guy' person's generous donation allows me to transport you to the location of my last dark gem!" He snaps his fingers and the dark gem is teleported away. He turns to Spyro's unmoving body. "I'll let the vultures finish him off." He smiles and disappears as the lava levels in the volcano sink back down to a normal level.

* * *

"_Is he dead this time… master?" _

"_Yes… but I cannot allow him to stay dead…" _

"_WHAT?! But I thought you said his death would benefit you!" _

"_I need the master gem and Ragnarok to instigate the transformation. The dragon must be revived. You need him if you wish to get Prometheus back from Severus's clutches."_

"_WHAT…?"_

* * *

"Wh-where am I…?" A voice rang out. Spyro lifted his head. He was in a small, comfy looking room. A white aura was emanating from him. "What is this place…?" A small chuckle echoed through the room. Spyro darted his head around the room, nervously. "Wh… who goes there?!" He calls out. A small, black robotic eyeball appears. Spyro stares at it curiously. "Who… who are you?" The eyeball chuckles again, making Spyro jump back, scared.

"No need to be alarmed, dzuragan. I am Yahweh… lord of the gods. You are familiar with a Vic and Tray… well, I created them to watch over the New Realm. I rule over the Old Realm… which you may know as the Real World. I believe Guy mentioned a third dimension; this is the dimension he came from." Spyro stared at Yahweh in disbelief.

"You… you're supposed to be the lord of the gods?" Yahweh chuckles.

"So full of questions, aren't we, dzuragan? This is but the form I use to communicate with others. My true form cannot be witnessed by the common folk. Anyone deemed unworthy by my true form turns to stone." Spyro takes a deep breath. Yahweh motions to a chair. "Please… have a seat, you must be tired." Spyro looked at him. "I insist." Spyro nodded and sat down. "Now…" Yahweh began, "I bet you have many questions, no?" Spyro nodded.

"For starters… where am I?" He asked. Yahweh chuckled.

"You are in my humble abode, dzuragan!" He replied cheerfully. Spyro looked at it in disbelief. "Ah… I bet you were expecting a magnificent palace. Well… this is a room I use when I chat with creatures from the New Realm. But… if you want, we can go into the main halls of the palace." Spyro nodded.

"I would like that." He replied. Yahweh's sky blue iris glowed and the door swung open. He floated through it, Spyro following. They emerging in a grant hall constructed of shimmering white crystal. Magnificent crimson and gold tapestry hung from the ceilings. In front of them was a giant throne made of the same crystal. Yahweh levitated atop the throne. His eye flashed and a chair appears in front of the throne. Spyro sat down. "So… what exactly happened?" Yahweh chuckled.

"You had a choice, dzuragan, destroy young Zane's shadow clone, at the cost of the life of one of your closest friends, or stop the attack. And you knew the only way to do that was to sever the connection with you and your sister. So you temporarily let her assume control of your mind, and told her plain and clear 'stab me'. And she followed the order; and now you're dead!" Spyro's jaw dropped in horror. Yahweh chuckled again. "Do not be alarmed, dzuragan…"

"…if you don't mind, could you call me Spyro…?" Yahweh nodded.

"Of course, Spyro! Now, I know you're thinking that this is horrible, but what you did shows that you are ready!" Spyro raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Ready…? Ready for what, Yahweh?" Yahweh chuckled.

"When Tray and Vic choose the creatures that will be blessed as their kin, I watch over them while they begin to develop their powers. I evaluate them. If I like what I see, the creature keeps its powers, and usually goes on to do great things. If I am angered by their choice. I kill the creature in the night and choose the next one for myself." Spyro nodded.

"I see… but what does all of this have to with me?" Yahweh chuckled again. _I kind of like this guy… he's always so bright and cheery. _Spyro thought.

"Well… as you know… you were recently blessed with the powers of an ancient. But you are one of the special blessings. A golden dragon… both you and your sister. It is a rare honor second to that of the sapphire dragon." Spyro stared at Yahweh intently.

"Sapphire dragon…?" He asked, his voice filled with curiosity. Yahweh nodded.

"Only one sapphire dragon will exist every 20,000 years. Considering that's almost how long the New Realms have been around for… I'd say the first sapphire dragon is due soon." Spyro was amazed by this. Yahweh chuckled again. "Let's not get too far off topic, Spyro. When I realized that your emotions had become unstable as a result of your sister's little spiel when you snapped out of your evil trance, I was worried you might not be the right dragon for these powers. You worried me even more when I realized your unstable emotions were controlling these powers…" Spyro blushed, embarrassed, "but then you did _this_. You put the life of a friend, someone nowhere near as powerful or important to the world, ahead of your own life. It was just now that I new that it was time."

"Time for what…?" Yahweh chuckled.

"Time to accept my blessing as a descendant of the ancients, Spyro-dzuragan. Your sister already got my blessing; that's why she has that mark on her forehead. And now… it is your turn." Yahweh's eye flashed. Suddenly two golden, holographic hands appeared on either side of Spyro. He was lifted into the air and transformed into his golden form in a magnificent flash. His body glowed as ancient runes and text lined his back. The mark on his paw suddenly changed from that of the swords and serpent to an image of a pyramid with an eye in the center. The letter "S" was engraved above the image on his paw. Spyro gently lowered back down to the ground.

"That was it…?" He asked. Yahweh chuckled once more.

"No… not quite. In about a week however… the true effects of my spell shall kick in. Now… something is about to happen to your body back in the New Realms. It is time for you to return." Spyro nodded. Yahweh's eye flashed and a swirling blue portal appeared. Spyro walked towards it, turning around to stare once more at Yahweh.

"Will I ever see you again…?" Spyro asked. Yahweh nodded. Spyro smiled and walked through the portal.

* * *

BACK IN THE VOLCANO…

A dark shadow appeared over Spyro's unmoving body. "I can't believe I'm about to do this…" A female voice commented. "But… if it is for my master… I must do it! He brought me back to this world; and I am bound by my honor to him!" The shadow raises something into the air. Spyro's body is lifted into the air, and glows gold. His eyes snap open, and he floats to the ground. His new tattoo and ancient symbols appear on him. His eyes widen when he sees who's revived him.

"P-P-Pandora?! What the… you revived me?!" Pandora nodded.

"I am just as disgusted by this as you are, child. But there are greater problems to attend to at the moment." Spyro stared at her suspiciously.

"I don't know… how do I know this isn't one of Guy's stupid traps?!" Pandora shook her head. Her calm emotion seemed unphased by Spyro's questions.

"Ignorant child…" She begins, "right now, your little 'friends' are being held prisoner by Severus on Angel Island. Angel Island is on the far side of Mobius; across the Sea of Escabar. Severus has used the last dark gem to transform the island into a twisted dimension; a 'model' of his 'world' if he enslaves the humans with his nightmares. The island is under strict security. He's placed his general, Anti Kracko in charge of this dark gem." Spyro continuous to pace around her in a circle.

"But why would you care about this…?" He asks; slightly peeved by her unnerved attitude.

"Ignorant child… you know nothing about this, do you? Well, child, Severus also has Prometheus. I don't know if you realize this, but my brother and I are powered using radioactive isotopic nuclei. If Severus were to take out Prometheus's core, he could use its highly-unstable energy to do almost anything." Spyro's eyes widened in horror.

"That's terrible!" He pauses, and his eyes narrowed. "So you revived _me_…"

"…because I wish to… how should I say this… align ourselves? Yes… that is correct. Your destructive power and aggression match Prometheus's personality perfectly." Spyro snuffs at the remark. "Do you know why we are such a good team? Because we contradict each other. His, head-on, no-thoughts, offensive fighting style is complemented by my defensive, strategic, and tactical fighting abilities. We would make an excellent team as well. Your physical strength; my brain… and our magic. Let's face it… you need me. All who have tried to infiltrate Angel Island have been eradicated before they've reached land." Spyro growled. He couldn't stand the thought of teaming up with Pandora.

"Let's get one thing straight… I don't like you… and you seem to show no signs of liking or despising me. I'll agree… on two conditions. One, we are allied until we _safely_ get _everyone_ freed from Angel Island _and_ destroy the dark gem. And two… that you will not betray me!" Pandora glares at him.

"I am a robot bound by honor…! Unlike my treacherous brother, I have never broken a promise; friend or foe!" She replied, slightly angered by his accusation. Spyro nodded.

"Very well…" He extended his paw forward. "Allies…?" Pandora stared at him for a minute, and then finally extended her arm forward.

"Allies…" She responded as the two shook hands; eyeing each other.

END CHAPTER 32!

Next time, Chapter 33- Spyro and Pandora: Unholy Alliance


	34. Spyro and Pandora: Unholy Alliance

**Author's Note: Wow… almost 90,000 words in total. I'm hoping for a six-digit figure… but there's only so much left to cover in this story. We're getting down to the nitty-gritty folks! **

**Chapter 33- Spyro and Pandora: Unholy Alliance**

FUTURE CITY, 2020 HOURS

"What exactly is our purpose of aimlessly walking around? Couldn't we just teleport to Angel Island?" Spyro complained. Pandora shook her head.

"Ignorant child… you don't think Severus is dumb enough to leave such an area open to magical creatures, do you? He put a shield around that prevents teleportation in and out of the place. We have to go across the sea to get there." She responds. Spyro groans and continues walking behind her. She stops at an intersection. "If we go left… it'll take us to downtown Future City… that's where we're stopping first." She says.

"Stopping…? For what, exactly?" Spyro asks. Pandora chuckles rounds the corner and faces him, giggling.

"To get you a weapon, of course. I saw what you did with a saber in that battle… very agile for one with no experience in swordsmanship." Spyro raises his head up proudly. She chuckles again. "The nightmares on Angel Island have elemental shields… your attacks might not do you any good. So it'll be good to have a fallback weapon, child." As they proceeded toward the downtown area, there were more and more people appearing on the sidewalks. They stare at Pandora and Spyro; which makes Spyro shiver slightly.

"Psst… Pandora." Spyro whispers, "why are they staring at us all funny?" Pandora shrugs.

"Well… I doubt it's every day they see a dragon like you walking around with a highly-advanced robot."

"But I hung out with Zero and Dragoon the entire time I was with the other allies!" Pandora giggles at this.

"You ask a lot of questions, child. I am not Zero… nor am I Dragoon… none of these people would know anything about me." Spyro nods. At this point, Pandora stopped in front of a closed metal door. "This way, child." She taps the door with her staff and in retracts into the building. The two walk into a dark room and the door closes. Pandora taps her staff on the ground and the room lights up. Weapons of all types are proudly displayed on several shelves. Spyro stares at them in awe. "Yes… it's something, isn't it? Prometheus likes to collect weapons; even though he only uses his scythe. He thinks they're fun to look at. _I _think they would do him better if they got some fresh air." She floats up to one of the highest shelves. It contains a small metallic computer chip. She picks it up and floats back down to Spyro.

"What is that?" Spyro asks. Pandora presses the chip against Spyro's right hand. Instantly, cyber energy begins swirling around. His hand and claws are instantly encased in a white armor. Spyro stares at it, confused. Suddenly, his claws extend out, growing several times their normal size. They also glow with cyber energy. "I don't get it…" Spyro comments.

"That is a Striker Gauntlet. All you have to do is think about using it to attack and your talons will extend and glow. You can tear through plenty of different materials with the Striker Gauntlet, child." Pandora flies up to another shelf and grabs a pair of wristbands; they are swirling with multi-colored energy. She places them around Spyro's wrists and a multi-colored aura swirls around him.

"I… I fell a great power… coming from my head… what is it?" He asks. Pandora smiles at the success of the device.

"Elemental Stabilizers; they'll increase the power of your elemental attacks, and let you use some new moves. Now… one more thing." She flies up to the highest shelf, and grabs a small purple and black object. It looks like the handle of a sword; it has a ruby encrusted in the center, surrounded by a swirling dragon design. She hands it to Spyro. "Go on… touch the ruby…" She says. Spyro obeys and taps a finger against it. Instantly a purple saber extends outward from the handle. Spyro twirls the weapon around, slashing the air in a variety of ways. When he's satisfied, he touches the ruby again and the saber retracts. Pandora then grabs the handle and places it on top of the Elemental Stabilizer on Spyro's right hand. Instantly, four small wires appear out of the hand and attack themselves to the sword handle. "So you don't even need to use your hands…" She comments.

Spyro stares at the blade in amazement. "Does it have a name?" He asks. Pandora nods.

"It is known as the Ryu-jin." She responds. Spyro's eyes widen at the name.

"The 'dragon king'…" Spyro remembers that Nestor had used the term once when he was giving a lesson on the great warrior dragon king, Bahamut. Bahamut extended the Dragon Realms from the small bit of landscape that Spyro remembers from his first life, to what it is today. He stared at Ryu-jin in awe. _Truly this may be a worthy weapon_. He thought.

"Come, child… we mustn't waste any more time." The door opens and Pandora floats out of it. Spyro nods and follows.

_I don't get it… she seems so nice working with me… but she seemed so different working for Guy… maybe I can help free her from Guy when we're done here._ Spyro thought as they walked off toward the blue horizon.

* * *

SEA OF ESCABAR, 2245 HOURS

The two looked out over the vast blue and saw a small spot of green off in the distance. "So… how do we go from here?" Spyro asks. Pandora smirks.

"I figure attempting to go by the water will end miserably. In the sky, we are both more agile, and can dodge security searchlights. And if that doesn't work… we'll fight our way through whatever guards the island." Spyro nods and leaps into the air, flapping his wings to propel him forward. He slowed down to a more comfortable speed as Pandora levitated beside him. She decided to start speaking to him, to pass time. "This sea… it's the largest body of water that's not an ocean in the Mortal Realms. The nearest main body of land to this place is Sinnoh… one of the lands inhabited by Pokémon." Spyro nods.

"I've seen a much larger sea back home. We call it the 'Raging Phoenix' because it is the sole item which separates the dragon and Phoenix kingdoms. The 'raging' part comes from the harsh waves and current that occur while traveling along the sea. Most creatures tend to fly over it, but those who can't have a difficult journey ahead of them." He says. Pandora nods.

"What's it like in the magical realms?" She asks politely. Spyro sighs.

"Well… I haven't gone to many places there. Other than the dragon kingdom, I've traveled to Avalar, the Forgotten Realms, the Fairy Realms… and some other places. I really like some of the creatures there. We're all quite unusual… from dragons to cheetahs to gryphons… it's a nice place. But most of the time I was cooped up in school with Ember and Flame." Pandora raises an eyebrow. "Yeah… even us dragons have school. I was never really much of a learner… but this year was pretty good. This year we learned about some combat moves and some elemental attacks. Next year we'll start learning magic… and if I make the advanced class, swordsmanship and maybe even dark magic. I don't really know… the teacher for that class is leaving… so there'll be a new one next year. I heard a rumor that the elders struck an agreement with Vic and Tray to have one of their 'associates' work with us next year!" He exclaimed, his tones moving from boredom to excitement.

"Ah! Look up ahead!" Pandora motions forward. Spyro gasps. The entire island was a gigantic metallic fortress. Severus's logo was burned into the metal, shimmering brightly under the starry sky. Searchlights were moving about the sea everywhere. Spyro quieted the flapping of his wings, so as not to attract attention. Pandora had to fly upward to dodge a searchlight, and Spyro barrel rolled off to the side. The two took to flying higher up, until a searchlight patrolling around the higher levels of the air came near them and forced them to dive down. At that moment, a searchlight rolls over them and they stop dead. "Pity… we've lost the element of surprise." Pandora comments, as she begins twirling her staff around. A siren blows out throughout the giant iron walls around the island. Lasers begin firing at them. A cyber wall appears in front of Spyro and Pandora and harmlessly deflects the attack. The two begin flying forward, the barrier deflecting any lasers. When they're close enough, Spyro slams the barrier with his gauntlet and it explodes, sending fragments of it everywhere and destroying some of the nearby lasers.

They land safely on top of the wall, and a line of nightmares begin marching toward them. Spyro attempts to use his flames on them, but the nightmares absorb the attack. Their hands form into flamethrowers and they return the attack, but Spyro quickly makes a barrier, blocking the attack. He activates his Striker Gauntlet and slashes the closest nightmare. It is electrocute and dissolves into the air. An electric energy crescent was formed by the swipe and plows through a couple of the nightmares. Pandora shoots out streams of electricity from her staff. A nightmare blocks the attack and lunges at her with its energy mace. She quickly spins her staff around and vanishes. And Spyro kicks his legs backwards, knocking the mace out of the nightmare's hands. He then slams the nightmare on the ground and slams the ground with Ryu-jin. Two purple energy waves ripple out, destroying a few more nightmares. One of the nightmares with an electric whip lashes out at Spyro, hurting him. Spyro becomes trapped within the grasp of the whip and grits his teeth as the electricity flows through him. Pandora reappears and points the top of her staff at the whip. A large ice arrow-head flies out and snaps the whip in half. She spins her staff around and several icicles form around her. She fires them at the nightmare, destroying it.

"Well… that seems to take care of all nightmares here. Welcome to Chaos Angel… Severus's horrible fortress." Pandora comments as the two jump down the other side of the wall.

* * *

CHAOS ANGEL INNER SANCTUM…

Cynder slowly lifts her battered head up from the cold metal floor. She was in a throne room. Purple tapestry displaying Severus's logo was hanging down from columns that lined the room. She notices that she's in a cage. She frowns, and turns to see all her friends (except Spyro), and Zane and his friends in a pile of unconscious bodies. "So… you're finally awake, little girl?" A voice whispers; laughing. Cynder turned and saw Prometheus trapped in a separate cage from the rest of them.

"You?! How'd you end up here?" Prometheus just laughed.

"How should I know? One minute, I was flying around Future City… the next I'm in a cage! My how exciting this new world has become!" He laughs again.

"How can you be laughing about something like this?" Cynder asked, startled.

"WAH HA HA HA! You don't get it, do you? Your brother is dead as a doorpost… whereas Guy and Pandora are still alive. _I_ can get rescued… but it's curtains for all of you! So I'd enjoy breathing this dank and depressing air, if I were you!" Cynder gritted her teeth.

"He's not dead… he can't be dead…" She growled.

"Did he not _tell_ you to _kill_ him?" She hissed at him.

"NO! Just to _stab_ him… in the heart…" She responded. Prometheus laughed.

"I'm no rocket scientist, little girl, but I have enough brain cells to know a blow to one's heart if fatal!" Cynder reared her head away from Prometheus in disgust.

"SILENCE, PRISONERS!" Yelled Anti Kracko as he floated into the room. "You're yelling is disrupting the factory workers! So silence yourselves before I unleash Dark Mantis on you!"

"Dark Mantis?!" Cynder asks, confused. Anti Kracko laughs.

"Mweee hee hee hee! You didn't think Severus was foolish enough to leave _only_ me in charge of these precious final dark gems did you? He had a Maverick ready for the operation!" He turned and floated out the room.

* * *

CHAOS ANGEL EXTERIOR, 2400 HOURS

"So… this is what Severus has done?" Spyro growls as he looks at the giant factories in front of him. Nightmares are patrolling around the buildings, their weapons slung over their shoulders. Several innocent creatures are being run around. All around the buildings, security cameras are swiveling around, looking for possible intruders. It was a truly terrible sight. But Spyro knew if he didn't stop Severus the entire mortal realms would become like this. He charges forward and destroyed the nearest nightmare with Ryu-jin. A security camera notices him and fires a fast-moving laser at him. A cyber shield appears in front of him and harmlessly deflects the attack. Pandora appears in front of him and spins her staff around. Ice daggers launch themselves at the nearby cannons, destroying them.

They progress forward, and find a group of nightmares dragging along helpless animals native to the island. Spyro growls in disgust. As he does, his Striker Gauntlet suddenly transforms into a buster-gun, like Zero's. The Sx-Buster glows with plasma energy and Spyro thrusts his arm forward, firing a large plasma blast that disintegrates the nightmares. The little animals all hop away into what's left of the forests. Pandora fires a stream of electricity at a nightmare attempting to attack Spyro from behind. "One must always be aware of his surroundings, less you want to lose the upper hand." She comments. Spyro grunts, he turns around and elbows a nightmare that was dashing at Pandora with an electric spear.

"You're not one to talk right now." Suddenly, the ground begins rumbling. A black, praying-mantis robot appears. "Who are you?" Spyro growls. The mantis slashes the air with the blades extending back from its arms.

"I am the chief of the Chaos Angel factories… Dark Mantis! You two are the last remaining hope for this world. Ironic, considering you're enemies. But no matter… I shall dispose of you two with utmost ease!" Dark Mantis whistles and a swarm of nightmares appear. "Good luck… you'll be needing it!" He laughs and vanishes in a way similar to Severus. A couple of nightmares charge forward. One of them throws its electric spear at Pandora, who creates a trio of green barriers that begin spinning around her, deflecting the attack. She moves her arm forward and the three barriers fly at the nightmares, spinning. They slice through a few, but the rest dodge the attack. Spyro burns a nearby nightmare with a white-hot meteor storm. He is then struck by the mace of a second nightmare, which is destroyed by an ice dagger from Pandora. She quickly disappears to dodge several electric whips. Spyro's hand glows purple and a mist swarms around the nightmares. They are all squeezed together and explode. A trio of nightmares with X-Buster combine their beams of energy, damaging Spyro. His response is to slice them open with a powerful dashing slice with Ryu-jin. Suddenly, a nearby building begins rumbling. It explodes and pieces of rubble fly at Spyro and Pandora, who dodge them with relative ease. Twelve black squares suddenly rise out of the ground and fly at Spyro and Pandora. They again dodge the attack.

The blocks melt into a puddle and reform into a giant black monster with arms and legs. A red eyeball lights up in the center of it and it sweeps a laser at Spyro and Pandora. Pandora spins her staff around, disappearing and Spyro erects a barrier, deflecting the attack back at the monster, who flashes white. It extends its arm forward and grabs Spyro. It's eye glows red and it unleashes a stream of flames onto Spyro. Pandora appears and slashes the monster's eye with her staff.

"You have to attack the Shadow Devil in the eye!" She yells as the Shadow Devil melts into a black puddle and reforms into twelve black squares. They fly at Spyro, who begins flying around to dodge them. The blocks then form back into the Shadow Devil and the creatures sweeps a red laser along the ground. The ground then instantly lights ablaze, burning Spyro. Spyro raises his arms in the air. A black tornado swirls around him and he fires it at the Shadow Devil, damaging him. The Shadow Devil suddenly transforms into a giant skull with spikes for teeth and begins jumping around, trying to crush Spyro. Spyro's eyes glow blue, and his Dragon Time ability activates, slowing down the crushing and allowing Spyro to melee the Shadow Devil in the eye. Time returns to normal and Pandora fires out two ice serpents which hit the Shadow Devil multiple times. It once again melts into a puddle.

"I-Is it over?" Spyro pants. The puddle suddenly begins bubbling. It reforms into a human-figure. The Shadow Devil jumps in the air and thrusts one of his hands downward. Red energy balls scatter around the ground, and erupt in a fiery inferno. Spyro quickly rolls to the side, dodging the onslaught. Pandora appears in the center of the field and several small electric energy balls fly out into the air. A giant wall of electricity is created and slams down on the Shadow Devil. The energy balls fly in the air again and repeat the process. The Shadow devil suddenly transforms into a bat and swoops at Spyro. He grabs him and bites him. Spyro's Striker Gauntlet activates and he slashes the Shadow Devil. An energy crescent forms, which strikes the Shadow Devil several times. The Shadow Devil begins flashing white quickly. He is encased by several mini-explosions and finally fades into the void.

"That wasn't too bad…" Spyro comments as he and Pandora walk into the main factory building.

* * *

CHAOS ANGEL OUTER SANCTUM

The two walk into a long hallway. A purple carpet runs along the center of the marble floor. Indigo tapestry drapes the factory's windows, blocking the bright flashes of lightning. A shadowy figure lies at the end of the hallway. "Hmmm… you've made it in here? Surprising… but you'll have a much harder time making it through this factory!" Yells a voice Spyro recognizes as that of Anti Kracko. As Anti Kracko disappears, the hallway begins rumbling.

"Not again…" Spyro groans as a giant mechaniloid dropped down from the ceiling. It had tank treads for legs, and two giant drills for arms. Its head was also a giant eyeball. The Drill Mechaniloid charges at Spyro and Pandora, spinning its drills. The two quickly dive to the side and the Drill Mechaniloid runs straight into the wall. Boulders begin falling from the ceiling, which Pandora dodges by disappears. Spyro destroys incoming boulders with mighty swipes of his Striker Gauntlet. The Drill Mechaniloid's eye glows red and it fires a fast moving energy ball. The energy ball splits into two and those two also divide as the energy balls approach Spyro and Pandora. Pandora spins her staff around and crystals form around her. She slams her staff downward and the crystal wall flies out, sending the energy balls back at its attacker. The attacks slam into the Drill Mechaniloid, which explodes on contact.

The two silently nod and progress into the next room. Looming in front of them is a giant oven filled with molten lava. They see chunks of it getting moved along a conveyer belt. It stops at a section and a nightmare pulls a lever. Several crushes pound on the lava and meld it into the shape of a mace. The lava mace next moves down the line to a cooling press. A second nightmare slams the press down on the mace, and it emerges a gleaming steel weapon. Next, it moves over to a nightmare holding a sparking wire. It taps the mace with it and the spikes of the mace instantly surge with electricity. It moves down the conveyer belt again until it falls into a giant cage filled with other energy maces. A conveyer belt running parallel to it is manufacturing electric spears and a third one cyber shields. The two silently float past the busy nightmares and out the door.

They emerge in a pitch black chamber. Suddenly, the chamber illuminates, revealing it is entirely holographic. The walls are several ancient symbols moving around and rearranging themselves. Spyro notices on the wall opposite several computer windows opening up. He sees one of them showing him attack Zane as Yurai. The image pauses and the computer "scans" the image, making several notes next particular parts of Yurai's body. A second window shows Zero dashing with his saber outstretched. The image freezes and is scanned like the previous. There are several more including Flame using electricity breath, Prometheus using his Sacred Flame attack, Cyber Peacock creating his binary code barrier, and Cynder and Spyro using Twin Rage and destroying the Galactic Battle Arena. The floor is see-through. Spyro can see binary code swirling around 3-D cubes and spheres that are bouncing around the floor.

"What is this place?" Spyro asked, gazing in awe at the wall of computer windows. One of the images changed to one of Zane's biometal armor. Pandora looked around.

"I'm not sure… the last place I remember learning about that was like this was the Zero Virus Lab." Suddenly, a few binary symbols fly out of the wall and begin swirling around in front of them. They suddenly disperse and Colonel is standing before them.

"So we meet again, dragon. I know you have grown much stronger since out last encounter… that's why I shall use this chamber to its full potential!" Colonel thrusts his saber into the air. A bolt of lightning crashes into it. Colonel points his saber at Spyro and Pandora and begins firing vertical walls of electricity. Spyro quickly lunges over the first and dives down to avoid a second. He's hit by the third however, and Colonel dashes towards Spyro and strikes him with his saber. Binary symbols begin swirling around Colonel; he's gone when they disperse. Suddenly, blasts of binary symbols fly out of the four walls. Pandora spins her staff around, deflecting the attacks while Spyro finally breaks free of the electric wall. Colonel reappears, his saber now on fire. He slams it against the ground and waves of flames fly out. Spyro dodges them and unleashes a storm of fireballs, damaging Colonel.

Binary code once again swirls around Colonel and the energy ball begins bouncing around the room, getting larger as it does. It succeeds in crashing down on Pandora, who flashes white. "Grgh…! I didn't expect him to have me from my weak point… the electricity…" A purple box appears around her and she suddenly vanishes.

"NO!" Spyro yells as he's crushed by the giant energy ball. The energy ball stopped in the center of the arena and exploded, sending binary symbols everywhere. Colonel reappears and dashes forward while performing an uppercut motion with his saber. Spyro deflects the attack with Ryu-jin and then spins his body around; the blade following and strikes Colonel on the head. A binary code barrier appears around him and he absorbs the energy into his saber. He slashes the air, crescents of the energy flying out in an attempt to his Spyro. Spyro comet dashes through the energy crescents and collides with Colonel, damaging him. Colonel disappears again. This time, lightning begins striking the ground in random places. Spyro does his best to dodge the bolts, but finally puts up a sapphire barrier, deflecting the remainder of the attack.

Colonel reappears and begins firing out electric walls again. Spyro conjures an electric orb and knocks it at the incoming attack. An explosion ensues, during which Spyro dashes into the smoke. The sound of static is heard and when the smoke clears, Colonel is on one knee and Spyro is facing him. "(gasp) Well fought, dragon. You fight with (gasp) honor and diligence; unlike I who tried to cheat my way out by disappearing. You (gaps) earned that victory." He gets to his feet. "May we duel again soon." He bows and vanishes. A door suddenly opens behind Spyro and he walks through it; into the unknown.

* * *

CHAOS ANGEL DATA CENTER, 0130 HOURS

_I'm alone_. Spyro thought as he charged down a long corridor. It was a lot like the room he'd just fought Colonel it. There were swirling spheres and bouncing cubes; and binary code was spinning around them. Nightmares were flickering into the room and dashing around, attempting to run into Spyro. _I've never been alone_. He thought; the statement was harsh but true. Never in his many adventures had Spyro been alone. His first adventure, battling Cynder, he had Sparx; and he was very talkative. His second adventure, Gaul, he had Sparx and occasionally Cynder. _It was very comforting to have Cynder there._ Spyro thought. Then his third adventure, beating the Dark Master, he had Cynder, Sparx and Hunter. In his second life, he started out with just Sparx, but gained several friends. His most recent battles against Red and the mysterious Sorcerer added Flame and Ember to his allies. But he'd never done something without a companion by his side.

_I hope they are all okay._ He thought as he charged into a circular room. It reminded him a lot of a temple or monastery. The floor had an intricate tile design on it, and giant panoramic windows were marvelously decorated in stained glass. Spyro cautiously strolled toward the center of the room, when a voice suddenly laughed. "SQUEE HEE HEE HEE! Poor little dragon, all alone in this big, scary fortress!" A mouse suddenly floated out of the shadows. It was blue, and dressed in an orange top hat and an orange cape. One of his hands was holding the top hat, and the other must be inside his cloak; at least, that's what Spyro guessed.

"Who are you?" Spyro asked. The mouse laughed again.

"I am the mighty Daroach! I am the greatest thief to walk Planet Popstar!" Daroach proudly proclaimed.

"Daroach?! You dress pretty fancy for a villain. Can I call you 'Count Squeaks' instead?" Daroach angrily gripped his hat tighter.

"Laugh now, purple dragon, but I shall soon steal your valuable weapons! Don't blink… or you'll miss it! SQUEE HEE HEE!" Daroach disappears. He reappears for a split second on one side of Spyro then disappears again. He reappears behind him and disappears again. Spyro turns around the arena, trying to locate Daroach. Daroach reappears to the side of him. He reveals his second hand, which is holding some sort of wand. He raises it in the air and fires out a blue beam. It hits Spyro and freezes him solid. "SQUEE HEE! Now that's what I call 'keeping your cool'!" Daroach taunts as he darts around the arena again. Spyro breaks out of the ice, much angrier than before. Daroach reappears on the outside of the arena and raises his wand again. Three electric orbs fly out, getting bigger as they do. Spyro fires a storm of ice shards at Daroach, but he begins darting around the arena again (A/N: for Daroach, "darting around" refers to quickly teleporting around the arena).

He reappears again and Spyro activates Dragon Time. But to his utter shock, Daroach is still moving at the same speed and fires another freeze ray. Spyro attempts to dodge it, but the tips of his wings are hit and frozen. "What the…? How were you not affected by my attack?" Daroach begins darting around the room again.

"Foolish creature, the Dream Wand is immune to such things as the manipulation of time! Which spells your doom!" Daroach taunts as he reappears and fires out three more electric orbs. Spyro dodges the attack and begins charging up fire energy. When Daroach reappears, Spyro unleashes "Inferno's Rage"; his upgraded fire fury. Daroach laughs. "Oh… I like this! You are pretty smart, using fire against an ice-style attacker like myself!" Daroach raises the Dream Wand and fires out another freeze ray. This time he moves it around the arena, trying to hit Spyro. Spyro tries to fly into the air to dodge it, but can't because his wings are frozen. He quickly slashes the energy beam with his Striker Gauntlets, ending the attack. He lets out a sigh of relief as Daroach begins darting around the arena again. Spyro quickly melts the ice encasing his wings as Daroach reappears and fires out three electric orbs. The electric orbs this time explode, hurting Spyro.

"OW! That hurt!" Spyro growled as Daroach darted around the arena. He reappeared and raised his wand, firing out three more electric orbs. Spyro begins gathering flames in his hands. Daroach reappears and he thrusts his hands into the air. The room rumbles and flaming, white meteors storm down into it, damaging Daroach. Daroach begins darting around the arena again. He reappears close to Spyro, but Spyro's ready and uppercuts Daroach with Ryu-jin; only the sword it on fire as he performs the attack. "Whoa… cool!" Spyro comments as Daroach crashes into the ground with a thud.

"Grgh… not bad, dragon! You fight well for someone of your size!" Daroach rises into the air. "But this is not the last time we shall meet! This, I swear!" Daroach vanishes. A pair of doors magically appear in front of Spyro and he walks through them. He walks through them and into another giant hallway. This time, much larger nightmares are swooping at the floor from above. Spyro charges past them, stopping to fry a nearby one with his electricity breath. He stops and stares at the floor, which is completely spikes.

"Pft…! Peace of cake!" He brags as he takes to the sky. Suddenly, the spikes slam upward and impale him. He growls as he crashes back on the ground. "Huh…?" Spyro looks around for a solution, and he spots a teleporter. He steps inside it and the teleport flashes. Spyro is standing on a floor, but he notices now the spikes are above him. "Am I standing on the ceiling?!" Spyro stares at the feat in amazement._No time for this, Spyro, you've got friends to save_! He thought as he charged along the ceiling. The spikes did not extend at him this time. When he was safely across he stepped into another teleporter and landed back on the floor. He let out a sigh of relief and walked through the door. He was in another monastery like room… this one much brighter and more palace-like.

"Welcome, Spyro!" A voice echoed around the room. Spyro gritted his teeth at the familiar voice.

"Alright, Red, show yourself!" Spyro growls as Red steps out from the shadows. "What do you want, Red?" Red laughs.

"Isn't it obvious… with you out of the way, Severus can complete the Enigma Project without any further interruptions! This is where I bury you, Spyro!" Spyro laughs. Red raises an eye in question.

"You… against me…? Not to be rude, Red, but that's an unfair battle, don't you think?" This time, Red laughs at the comment.

"That is why it shan't be I who fights, Spyro!" Mario and Megaman step out on either side of Red. "You know what to do… stop him!" Red growls as he steps back into the shadows and the two other jump into the middle of the arena. "Well, Spyro… I'd love to see how you resolve this little conflict! HA HA HA HA!"

END CHAPTER 33!

**Poor Spyro, all alone and he still has many bosses to face! Can he survive them all and rescue his friends? Stay tuned to find out!  
**

Next time, Chapter 34- Things get Complicated!


	35. Things get Complicated!

**Author's Note: Alright… my prediction is that there will be at least 4-6 more chapters after this. But anyways, sit back and enjoy! This chapter will be a lot of battling like the previous one. But that's a good thing! Again, sorry for the delay, but Friday was my birthday! I had a really good birthday… considering I was at college and not my house. But let's not get too far off topic!**

**Chapter 34- Things get Complicated!**

Mario starts thing off by beginning to spin around the arena with his hammer. Spyro takes to the air and pelts the spinning top with fireballs, damaging him. Megaman sees this and fires a beam of electricity from his buster. The attack collides with Spyro and he crashes into the ground with a thud. Mario then spins in to him knocking him into the wall. An ice shard flies out from the shadows and hits Spyro, freezing him solid. Megaman breaks the ice using his flame sword and burns Spyro. Spyro stands up, gritting his teeth. _Come on, Spyro… gotta stay focused._ He thought as he blasted the incoming Megaman with his Sx-Buster. He dived out of the way as Megaman attempted to kick him and grabbed his foot. He swings Megaman around like a baseball bat and whacks Mario into the wall.

He proceeds to melee the dizzy Megaman until Megaman fends Spyro off with his flame sword. He fires a laser out of his buster. The laser suddenly splits in two and begins flying at Spyro. He rolls to the side to dodge the attack and then fires a black thunderbolt at Megaman, knocking him away._Wow… a black thunderbolt. That's new._ Spyro thought as he dodged several fireballs being shot at him. He dives toward the ground and spins around to right himself, then uses his ice sword breath attack on the nearby Mario. _Heh… this isn't so hard!_ He thought as a flurry of ice daggers launched themselves at Megaman, damaging him. He collapses on the ground, his eyes rolling around, dizzy. Spyro quickly reflects several fireballs back at Mario. He takes the attack head on and collapses on the ground.

"Hmph… not bad, Spyro… but we're not finished here yet!" Red's voice calls out as several teleporters appear on both the floor and ceiling. A blue blur whizzes past Spyro and he quickly dives to the side to avoid it. "Well… I have to get going. I hope you two have fun! Ta!" Red yells as he vanishes behind a black door. Sonic quickly takes off for a nearby teleporter and reappears on the ceiling. He jumps toward the floor, slamming into Spyro's back. And proceeds to use a combo of punches and kicks until he drifts back onto the ceiling. Spyro quickly charges into a teleporter and also appears on the ceiling, but Sonic quickly dashes into another teleporter and reappears on the floor. He jumps up and strikes Spyro again. Spyro then grabs Sonic's foot and proceeds to unload a heavy stream of flames on his defenseless enemy. Sonic finally kicks Spyro in the chest and lands back on the floor. Spyro charges into a teleporter again, but then doubles back when he sees Sonic running into another one. Now on the ceiling again, he shoots out rings of white flames. Sonic jumps through them and tries to kick Spyro, but Spyro slashes him with his Striker Gauntlet.

"Take that!" Spyro yells as the energy crescent propels Sonic into one of the teleporters. Spyro quickly dives into another teleporter, giving chase. Sonic begins spinning in place and then spin dashes toward Spyro. Spyro arches his tail back and slams it around like hockey stick and knocks Sonic toward another teleporter. Before he can go through it, a thunder cloud appears near it and rains lightning down on Sonic, knocking him back towards Spyro, who uppercuts him. Sonic slams into the ceiling and falls back on the ground. He gasps for air and Spyro calmly walks past him and through the open door.

* * *

CHAOS ANGEL INNER SANCTUM, 0300 HOURS

Spyro emerged in a corridor hallway that seemed a combination of the two forms of hallways he'd passed through in the factory. The walls were flashing with various calculations; he quickly glimpses a stream of ancient letters floating around the wall like a serpent. The walls were decorated with purple tapestry baring either a giant eye symbol or Severus's logo; some even both. As soon as he took a step forward, several small metal cannons appear and begin swiveling around. They fire out beams of yellow energy that slowly bounce around the room. He charges forward, diving under a pair of criss-crossing lasers. He then jumps over another pair of beams but is struck in the side by one moving horizontally. He quickly shakes off the attack and uses his blade to slice through another pair of beams. He quickly flies into the air and stays close to the ceiling, rolling to the side to dodge incoming beams.

He soon arrives at an electronic door. He takes a moment to admire the engineering feet. He sighs, "I really wish Sparx were here…" he mumbled to himself, "he'd always have something funny to say about this." He sighs and presses the large red button on the door. It turns green and the door slides open. He emerged in a hallway similar to the last one. Only this time, there were giant purple energy balls bouncing around the room. Whenever they collided, they absorbed each other, growing larger as they do. He sighed and decided to stay close to the walls, ducking and jumping over energy balls. He slices one particularly large one open and to his surprise, it splits into two and the energy balls begin to home in on him. He starts charging forward; they're picking up speed. He sees the door in the distance; they're practically on the tip of his tail. He dives for it…

"I'm truly amazed! You've made it to my office!" Spyro looks up and sees he's in a very large, electronic room. The edge of the circular room is dotted with large, flowing circles. The enemy himself was standing in a glowing circle. Dark Mantis is standing in the center of the room, a smile on his face. "You should feel proud… no enemy of Severus was able to even make it to the exterior and here you are all the way in the Inner Sanctum! Too bad it must end for you!" Dark Mantis laughs. Spyro assumes a fighting stance and quickly jumps to dodge a purple and black energy crescent. Dark Mantis suddenly evaporates into a mist and reappears in another glowing circle along the outside. A black and purple barrier appears around him. Spyro tries to break the barrier but Dark Mantis slams his hands onto the ground and large purple energy balls shoot out, slamming him into the far wall. Dark Mantis evaporates again and reappears in the center of the arena. Another barrier pops up and Spyro gets ready to dodge the attack. He fires out large purple shockwaves which Spyro easily flies over. He notices Mantis's barrier is gone and shoots a large stream of electricity at Mantis, damaging him.

"Ah! You've figured out how to hurt me! This may be an interesting fight, yet!" Mantis comments as he evaporates again. He reappears in an outer circle. He raises his hands in the air and this next attack stuns Spyro. Giant cubes of purple and black matter form and begin raining down first along the outside and then the center. Spyro quickly dashes in and out of the center, attempting to dodge the attack. He takes a moment to catch his breath as Mantis evaporates into a mist again. He reappears in the center and proceeds to sweep a purple laser around the arena. Spyro dodges the laser and conjures his earth flail, slamming it into Mantis several times. Mantis jumps into the air and grabs onto the ceiling. He punches the ceiling and waves of purple crystals rush out along the ceiling, then down the wall, and finally toward the center of the arena.

Spyro is hit by one of the chains and is frozen in purple ice. Mantis jumps down from the ceiling and slashes the giant ice cube several times. He evaporates into a mist again and reappears in the center of the arena. Dark Mantis sweeps two lasers around the arena this time. Spyro casts a spell and a black tornado begins swirling around him. He spins into Dark Mantis, damaging him and knocking him out of the circle. He lies on the ground, dazed and Spyro proceeds to melee him until he stands up and slashes Spyro away. He jumps up and clings to the ceiling and sends out another round of crystal chains. Spyro dodges them and a second one and slams Dark Mantis with a powerful flaming uppercut. Dark Mantis flops on the ground like a dead fish. He suddenly splits into two identical Dark Mantises and they both evaporate; reappearing on the outside.

"Oh great!" Spyro groans as the one Mantis proceeds to fire off lasers while the other creates the dark matter cubes. He does his best to try and doge but is eventually hit by a laser and then crushed twice by the energy cubes. The two Dark Mantises reform into one and it uses the dark matter cube attack again. Spyro dodges them successfully and casts his meteor storm spell. Dark Mantis collapses on the ground.

"Tee hee! You broke me! But you'll never be able to break Severus! It's too late to stop this plan now!" Dark Mantis yells as he disappears in a flash of mini-explosions. Another door opens opposite him. He slowly walks through it. He appears in another long hallway, this one appears empty. He frowns and steps forward. He suddenly jerks his hand back and gasps as a burning pain flows through him. A small red laser flickers into view for a moment, before vanishing. He rears his head back and unleashes a steady stream of ice breath. Dozens more red lasers appear, stretching all the way down the corridor. Spyro sighed and began to weave his was through the beams, his fairly small size helping him to fit through smaller spaces. He finally lands at the other side. He notices a mirror and takes a moment to stare at himself. He notices the expression on his face; one that desires something. Deep in his heart, he knows what he longs for…

…_Company. Have I been condemned to a fate worse than any other? Forced to fight off swarms of Severus's troops… alone?_ He thought. He wondered how much further Chaos Angel's Inner Sanctum extended; it seemed endless to Spyro. But, nonetheless, he had to save his friends and destroy those last dark gems. He took a deep breath and opened the door. He strolled through it into a pitch black room. He looked around, trying to see if there was anything visible. All of a sudden, lights flicker on. He was standing in a room with a transparent floor. Computerized images were popping up under it. The walls were a cold, black metal with purple tapestry hanging down from them. Opposite him was a large, "v"-shaped throne, with a shadowy figure seated atop it. Spyro hunched his back low to the ground, waiting for the figure to attack.

"This is _incredible_! You've made it all the way to the central chamber! I don't know whether to be impressed or scared, little dragon!" Anti Kracko floated off of the throne and into the light. "No matter… this is your end, little dragon! Our plan is nearly complete!" Spyro's eyes widened.

"I don't get it… Severus doesn't have access to the Final Weapon! And he's out of dark gems to use as a power source!" Anti Kracko laughed.

"But this lovely man in a snazzy suit and visor… I think he called himself 'Guy'… has given Master Severus a NEW power source! One with which the Nightmare Ray will be even stronger! The Ragnarok Core…!" Spyro's legs begin to shake. "An all Severus needs is enough _raw_ energy to bring Ragnarok out of its hibernation state! That's…" Anti Kracko pulls on a rope. A curtain next to him swings open revealing two steel cages. One holds Pandora and Prometheus; the other, his friends and rivals. "…where they come in" Anti Kracko laughs. "These fools combined have enough energy to not only awaken Ragnarok, but make it 10 times stronger than it ever was!"

"Ragnarok?! That-that's impossible! I blew up Ragnarok!" Anti Kracko laughs again.

"Yes… and someone blew up Pandora and Prometheus… but Guy rebuilt them from scratch!" He retaliates. Suddenly, Spyro's eyes meet Cynder's; she gasps.

"GUYS! GUYS! Look, over there! It's Spyro! H-H-He's alive!" They all turn their heads in astonishment. He was alive, but he looked different. Ember noticed this.

"Wait a minute… where'd Spyro get those weapons from?" Pandora remained silent. She knew that was her doing, but kept that info to herself.

"Yes, he's alive… but not for long! HAVE AT YOU!" Anti Kracko floated into the middle of the arena. A purple forcefield appears around him. Spyro begins charging around the arena. Anti Kracko's eye glows a darker shade of red and four electrical energy balls fly out of him and begin to snake around the arena, chasing after Spyro. Spyro counters with an electric orb, destroying Anti Kracko's attack. Anti Kracko's eye glows again, this time blue. The arena floor suddenly explodes with blue electricity, frying Spyro. He growls as the electricity surges through him. Anti Kracko's barrier suddenly disappears. Several targeting icons appear on the floor of the arena. Suddenly, beams of raw electric energy rise up from them. Spyro's screams are masked by the noise of the attack.

Anti Kracko suddenly retracts his cloud slightly, revealing spikes. He floats over towards Spyro, attempting to stab him. He attempts to jab one of his spikes into him, but Spyro counters the attack with Ryu-jin. He uses the momentum of pushing Anti Kracko's spike down and slams Anti Kracko with the blade, knocking him back into the center of the arena. Another barrier pops up around Anti Kracko. His spikes disappear and two Waddle Doo nightmares suddenly appear. They run at Spyro, then stop to fire purple beams from their eyes. Spyro grabs one of the nightmares and throws it at the other, destroying them. But while he was preoccupied with that, Anti Kracko uses his energy beam attack again, hitting Spyro. The allies watched the battle in horror.

"H-H-He's losing!" Flame cried. He hung his head ruefully. Ember could tell he wanted to help out his friend in any way possible, but there was nothing they could do but watch.

"Oh give me a break!" Zane growled. "Like you really thought Spyro would beat Severus's_general_ on his own! He's been serving Severus since his rise to power!" Cynder suddenly slashed him across the face; the only part not covered by his armor.

"SHUT UP ALREADY! I don't freaking care about how much you hate Spyro! If you ask me, it doesn't make sense! I don't see _anything_ and I MEAN_anything_ that Spyro would have every done to hurt you! Why do you hate him so much?!" She hissed in a venomous voice that just screamed "I'd kick the living snot out of you". Zane stared at her. "That's what I thought! He never did do anything to you! You're just jealous! Jealous because _you're_ not the one that's standing there, getting pulverized by a freaking cloud! SO JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!" She suddenly stabbed Zane's helmet with her tail. The crystal on the top shattered, the rest of his armor following. Zane's friends stared at Cynder in silence. She turned to them. "Does anyone _else_ want to say anything _against_ Spyro?!" She hissed. They simultaneously shook their head slowly. "Good… keep it that way." She replied turning back to her friends. Flame put his arm around Cynder, trying to comfort her.

"AHHHH! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" Spyro roared as he was strike by a purple energy ball by Anti Kracko. The battle had been going on for some time and he'd only succeeded in getting that one hit on Anti Kracko. Anti Kracko's barrier disappeared, and the targeting icons appeared on the floor once again. As they began to stop in specific places, Spyro's eyes glowed blue, and he activated Dragon Time. He quickly weaved his way through the slowly-rising beams and over to the defenseless Anti Kracko. He unloaded several slams from his earth flail breath, followed by several strikes from his ice sword breath. The attack wore off and Anti Kracko crashed into the ground with a thud.

"Grr… I'm beginning to like you less and less, punk! Ready for round 2?" Anti Kracko says as another barrier appears around him. Beams of black lightning begin bouncing around the arena. Spyro dodges them with ease. Anti Kracko conjures a nightmare of the Drill Mechaniloid from the earlier area of Chaos Angel. The drill mechaniloid charges at Spyro, who sidesteps the attack. He fires a few blasts of his Convexity Breath and the nightmare explodes. Spyro is suddenly stabbed in the side by one of Anti Kracko's spikes. He shakes off the attack in time to see Anti Kracko's next attack. Dark matter cubes begin forming; only these ones didn't drop in a specific pattern like Dark Mantis's, they just randomly fell around the room. Spyro quickly rolled to the side, dodging one, the jumped backwards to dodge a second, the quickly flew to the right to dodge a third, fourth, and fifth. Anti Kracko stopped the attack and his eye glowed a brownish color. Several gold boulders appeared on the ceiling and all began flying at Spyro. Spyro tried attacking the first boulder, but the attack had no affect. He darted into the air, dodging the boulders. Another round of them appears and head towards Spyro. He slows down time again, allowing him to dodge the attack with ease. Anti Kracko suddenly evaporates into a mist. Suddenly, a purple and black version of Commander Yammark, the Maverick from the Koopaseum appeared. He fires out several purple dragonflies which Spyro destroys using his meteor shower attack. The nightmare disappears and a nightmare of Blaze Heatnix appears. Black flames encircle the Maverick and home in on Spyro. Spyro negates the attack with a stream of powerful ice breath. The nightmare vanishes. A flurry of purple energy balls rain down from the ceiling and Anti Kracko reappears.

"Now's my chance!" Spyro yells and lunges at Anti Kracko, slamming him with his tail. He follows by uppercutting him, his hand glowing with the ice element. Anti Kracko is encased in ice and Spyro unloads a series of intricate spinning moves with his blade. The ice around Anti Kracko shatters and he crashes into the ground. Spyro raises his hands in the air. A giant ball of ice daggers forms above him. He launches in at Anti Kracko and it shatters against him, damaging him. Anti Kracko puts a barrier around himself.

"Boy, Spyro sure seems peeved off about something!" Luigi comments.

"Your friend seems to be angry because he had to progress through this fortress by himself. He is used to the company of one or many." Pandora responds. Ember stares at him.

"That's awful… there has to be a way to escape this terrible prison cell!" Doopliss's eyes suddenly light up.

"Wait! I got it, slicks!" He transforms into a bomb and lights his fuse. He explodes, damaging the allies but breaking the cage. They jump out of the cage and stretch briefly. They notice Zane and his friends remain inside the cage. Cynder waves her hand and the cage repairs itself.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" Alicia growls.

"You don't want to help… fine… you can stage in your cage like you animals should!" She hisses.

"DUCK!" Spyro yells and the allies quickly disperse, dodging a bolt of lightning from Anti Kracko. "Wait… you guys escaped?" Ember smiles.

"You bet we did! Don't worry, Spyro, we'd never leave your side! Especially not after how you saved me like that." Spyro wanted to cry at this statement; he was shocked at how loyal they all seemed to be to him.

"GAH! You escaped?! That's it… I'm unloading the _big_ guns now!" Anti Kracko's eye glowed. Bolts of black lightning began raining down from the ceiling, accompanied by the dark matter cubes. Spyro suddenly dashed toward Ember and knocked her out of the way of an incoming bolt of lightning. Shadow turned on his rocket skates and sped around the arena, dodging the bolts and cubes. Luigi was running around the arena in a cartoon-like way. Pikachu was countering the attacks by using his volt tackle move. Cynder and Flame used their combined electrical powers to deflect the attacks. Anti Kracko's barrier disappeared and Dragoon snuck up behind him and attacked with his flames, Bowser mimicking the action. Doopliss transforms into a missile and flies into Anti Kracko, exploding in his face. Shadow shot Anti Kracko with his rifle and Luigi rammed Anti Kracko using Luigi Missile. Pikachu continued his volt tackle into Anti Kracko. Peach whacked Anti Kracko with her frying pan and Zero used the Kuuenbu ability on Anti Kracko. Epsilon unleashes a heave stream of dark energy on Anti Kracko. White Mage threw her mallet at Anti Kracko. The four dragons then appeared in front of Anti Kracko.

What happened next was stunning. The four glowed with a magnificent white and blue aura. The other allies could make out Earth, Water, Fire, Ice and Electrical energy swirling around them in some sort of atom-shaped way. The four dragons thrusted their hands forward and the atom collided with Anti Kracko. He flashes white as the energy encases him. "What is it…?" Pikachu asked in awe.

"The Holy Fury. Seems Flame and Ember are experiencing side-effects of close personal relationships with ancient gods." He responds as Anti Kracko disappears in a flurry of mini-explosions. The four dragons landed on the ground and the others ran over to them.

"That was awesome!" Bowser yelled as he put away a pair on sunglasses. Doopliss shook Ember's hand.

"Yeah, yeah, what the big guy said, slick! I didn't know you had it in you!" He patted Ember on the back.

"Wait… you mean that attack came from me…?" Epsilon nodded.

"Partly. You're experiencing what is commonly known as an 'Ancient Link'. It means that you will gain powers similar to that of ancient god, but not as powerful, solely because you have a close personal connection with them. In your case, that would mean lifetime friends with Spyro… and just recently meeting up with Cynder." His hand glows white and he waves it over one of her paws. The see something; it was dim, but Spyro could make out a pyramid with an eye on top, and the letter "S" visible on top of that.

"That's funny… that symbol… it is not that of Vic and Tray…" Flame says, as Epsilon repeats the process on his hand. Spyro cleared his throat, and thrusted his left paw forward.

"No… I've learned that there is a force in the universe greater than Vic and Tray. And that's all I will tell you." Spyro said. Cynder, who was standing next to him, whispered "Yahweh?" in his ear. Spyro nodded and Cynder smiled, happy with the remark. "So… all we have to do is destroy those two dark gems and…"

"SQUEE HEE HEE! If only it were that easy, Spyro!" Spyro growled as the familiar voice echoed through the arena.

"Who is it, Spyro…?" Shadow asked, trying to resist the urge to punch someone. Spyro knew how ticked off Shadow got whenever they had the dark gem in their fingertips, and someone just appeared and made things difficult.

"It's Count Squeaks… err… I mean Daroach!" Spyro responds as Daroach appears standing on top of the throne. "What do you want now? Didn't I already beat you?" Daroach tips his hat to the allies.

"That you may have… but I am about to pull of the greatest thievery of all time!" Daroach raises the Dream Wand in the air. Two glowing black crystals appear next to him.

"The dark gems!" White Mage gasps. Daroach laughs.

"Now… watch as I absorb your powers!" The two dark gems rose into the air. Black energy beams fired at lightning fast speeds. Spyro slowed down time, thinking his friends would be affected, but they were. He quickly dived out of the way as the attack wore off. The other allies were all struck by the black beams and screamed as multi-colored energy was extracted from them and flew into Daroach's Dream Wand. The Dream Wand began glowing with this energy. The allies all collapsed on the arena floor, unconscious. "SQUEE HEE HEE! Now I shall destroy you, dragon!" Daroach began darting around the arena. Spyro noticed that he was teleporting much faster than previously, and eventually lost sight of Daroach. Daroach appears behind Spyro and raises the Dream Wand. He fires out a frieze ray, this one three times bigger than before. The attack collides with Spyro and freezes him solid. Daroach sticks out his tongue and begins darting around the arena again.

The ice around Spyro explodes and steam flares out of his nostrils; boy was he angry. Daroach reappeared and a holographic image of Shadow could be made out over Daroach as he raised the Dream Wand. Several blasts similar to that of Shadow's rifle flew out at Spyro. He dived to the side, dodging the attack. _Crap! He really did absorb their powers! How the hell am I supposed to beat him?_ Daroach begins darting around the arena again. He reappears and Spyro managed to get a hit with a stream of electricity breath. Daroach raises the Dream Wand in the air and a holographic image of Cynder appears over him. Suddenly, several bolts of lightning fly at Spyro. He howls in pain as he's violently electrocuted.

"SQUEE HEE HEE! Shocking, no?" Daroach taunts as he begins darting around the arena again. He reappears and Spyro blasts him with a stream of white flames. "Bah! That's nothing! Let me show you some _real_ flames!" He comments as he raises the Dream Wand. Four different streams of flames appear; one white (Epsilon's), one black (Cynder's), one red (Ember's), and one crimson (Flame's). Daroach chases after Spyro, attempting to burn him to a crisp. When Spyro proves faster than the attack, Daroach gives up and begins darting around the arena. Spyro begins to charge energy in his hands. Daroach reappears and Spyro unleashes a powerful fire fury. Fire bombs explode everywhere, then jets of flames shoot out from the ground, followed by the typical wall of energy that finishes a fury attack.

Daroach raises the Dream Wand and suddenly the exact same attack strikes Spyro. He howls as he realizes the power of his own attack. He lands on the ground with a thud. "So much for that! A wasted effort on your part! But don't worry, I'll make it quick but painful!" Daroach raises the Dream Wand, ready for the kill. Suddenly, a tiny bit of black flames hit him in the side. Spyro turns his head to see Cynder, panting heavily from the effort to conjure some form of fire. "Hmmm… you're awake? Ah! That tickled! Was that supposed to be an attack? You're pathetic without your powers!" Cynder growled.

"As long as I'm still standing I _won't_ let you hurt my brother like that! I may be down my elemental powers but I've still got my physical strength!" She lunges at Daroach and melees him. Daroach raises the Dream Wand and blasts Cynder with a freeze ray.

"Bah! Fools like you don't deserve powers like these! Alright… enough running around. It's time to face you rats head on!" A blue, ice barrier appears around Daroach and he begins floating around the arena. He stops and raises the Dream Wand. He fires out three stream of electricity breath. Spyro quickly slams the block of ice that's Cynder and takes the hit for her. "Squee hee hee! You keep taking hits like that and you'll be down faster than I can count to 10!" Daroach floats into the center of the arena and raises the Dream Wand. Four electric orbs fly out and transform into purple energy balls. The energy balls begin bouncing around the arena. Spyro quickly shoots several white fireballs at Daroach, melting his ice barrier. Cynder pounces on him from behind like a predator stalking its prey and Daroach falls on the floor. She slams him with her tail and then her wings, while Spyro shoots several fireballs at him. Daroach rises back into the air and puts a barrier around himself. Daroach floats around the arena again.

"Eat this!" He yells as he raises the Dream Wand. Suddenly, a steady beam of purple energy fires out. Spyro sees Cynder, her back turned to the attack, panting for exhaustion.

"CYNDER, NO! Watch out!" Spyro charges in front of her and wraps his slightly larger body around her, taking the hit. Daroach floats toward them to see if they're still conscious, and is startled to find Spyro still standing. "I'm not going down this easily Daroach!" Spyro growls as he unleashes another fire fury. The attack destroys Daroach's barrier, and Cynder sneaks up on him again and melees him. The sound of glass cracking is heard and Daroach crashes into the ground. Several beams of light fly out of him and into the bodies of the other allies. Suddenly…

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO! YOU STUPID MOUSE, DO YOUR REALEISE WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Yells Severus as he appears in the arena. Suddenly, Spyro felt a rush of warmth come over him. He shakes out his scales.

"You feel it too, huh?" Cynder pants. Severus was clearly not happy.

"This is ridiculous! All of my precious dark gems… gone! Bah!" Severus raises his hands. Purple boxes suddenly appear around the allies, Zane's group, and Guy's minions. Spyro grabs Cynder's by her tail and they dart around the arena, dodging Severus's boxes. "Hmmm…? You do go down so easily, do you?! Very well… Ragnarok was sent to me in parts. It will take 48 hours for my machine to reconstruct it. So you have 48 hours to stop me before the entire world is nightmared and your friends are erased from existence!"

"Big deal!" Spyro taunts, "I've seen Gate's Laboratory… it's a small fortress!" Severus laughs.

"I know… that's why I've redone it… thanks to my magic! You're familiar with an area known as Concurrent Skies, no?" Spyro knees began to tremble. Of all the places he'd ever gone, he hated Concurrent Skies more than anything. If he wasn't fighting off seemingly-endless herds of those crazy monkeys that worked for the Dark Master, he was maneuvering his way through platforms perched over beds of spikes at altitudes high enough to make him sick. "Ah… you _do_ remember it! Well I've made a bigger, higher, and overall more dangerous fortress, Concurrent Skies II! Remember… 48 hours! Ciao!" He smiles and waves his hands. The other allies, along with Spyro's enemies disappear. Severus smiles and vanishes along with him. Cynder looked at the scene in horror.

"48 HOURS?! To make it through a larger Concurrent Skies?!" She grabs Spyro and drags him toward the exit. "Come on… we can't waste any time." She says, her voice hallow and empty.

* * *

PEACH'S CASTLE, 0800 HOURS (48 hours until Ragnarok is complete)

"WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!" Dr. Lelenthal cries out, stunned. "So it is just the two of you… alone… and you have to take on a larger version of the fortress you say is toughest thing you've ever gone through? And you only have_48 hours?_" Spyro nodded, Cynder frowned. Dr. Lelenthal took a deep breath. "I see… I see… well then… I suppose I should give you the code-cracking device for the Final Weapon. Can I have Bob?" Spyro stares at him.

"Um… Cynder, did Epsilon give me Bob before we went to Mt. BlowsItsTop?" Cynder shrugged. A few seconds passed, and then Spyro's eyes lit up and he pulled out the phone.

"Ah! Very good!" Dr. Lelenthal places a small computer chip onto Bob's battery in the back of the phone. "All you have to do is attach Bob to the main computer of the Final Weapon… and it will decode the security override code and enter it. Now… you two better get going! Dark Land is several miles away. Be very careful! Severus is sure to have the fortress well guarded!" The two dragons nodded and charged out the door. We cut to a final shot of them charging through a grassy field. This was it; the big finale. It was two siblings, dragon gods versus an entire armada set up by their maniacal, possessed father. A race against time, and a test of their mental will, emotional, and raw power. The big question, can they save their friends and the entire Mortal Realms from certain destruction?

_No pressure, right?_ Spyro though to himself, sarcastically.

END CHAPTER 34!

**Alright! These next chapters will be only about SpyroxCynder… we will not focus on the other allies. Can they defeat Severus once and for all? And will Spyro's dreaded secret haunt him in the process? Find out!**


	36. Concurrent Skies II, part 1

**Author's Note: Hiya folks! As of now… this story's over 100,000 words! Well, I don't have much else to say, except that it's time to get started! A little side note, when I was writing this part, I was listening to the Concurrent Skies track from The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning original game score on iTunes. I found it very helpful for thinking about how to lay out the level! Also, Fluffy is copyright J.K. Rowling. Don't sue me for the use of Fluffy! (nervous sweatdrop) Lastly, this is the longest chapter! I broke the 6,000 word mark! Yay me!**

**Chapter 35- Concurrent Skies II, part 1**

DARK LAND, 0830 HOURS (47.5 hours until Ragnarok is complete)

There could be only one word to describe the scene lying in front of the two dragons; horror. Bowser had told them how Dark Land, despite its name was not a horrid place to live. Sure, it was always night time, but the grass was green, plants did grow, and there was crystal clear water (Mortal TIME magazine had even ranked the Koopa River as the world's 3rd cleanest body of water). Dark Land was only bad near Bowser's castle, where the land turned to lava and molten rock. But this was unbearable. The entire ground in front of them was gray, rocky, and giant purple crystals acted as trees, looming above the ground like giant statues. The sky was shrouded in thick, black thunder clouds. Bolts of lightning lit up the sky, and the crystals were glowing with the same blue energy. Spyro and Cynder landed on a small rocky cliff, overlooking a valley where the ground turned to a black and blood red color. The crystals were much larger, and pointed toward a terrifying, gigantic, black castle. The purple and black sky made the architectural nightmare even more terrifying. If Spyro had to guess, he'd say the building was at least 60 or 70 stories high, extending into the clouds.

"This is… this is awful…" Spyro said. Severus was right; the massive stronghold and the ground before them was a larger replica of what was once a fortress controlled by the very dragon standing next to him. A reminder to him of the terrifying fear she'd once sank into his heart. But worse, reminded him that he too had been used by Severus at two points in his life. Spyro felt a sudden cold sensation and jerked to the side. He let out a breath of relief as it was just Cynder's paw.

"Are you okay, Spyro?" She asked her voice deep with concern. Spyro nodded. "No… you don't look fine. Your legs are trembling, and you're awfully warm…" She responded.

"I-I-It's okay, Cynder… I'm just having, b-bad memories." He said. Cynder wrapped her tail around him. Spyro shivered slightly. "I-I-It's fine… you can't worry about me at a time like this." He said and he glided down onto the rocky pathway and slowly walked toward the stronghold.

_Spyro… I know how much you hated this place. Please, for my sake, just hold it together._ She thought as she charged after him.

* * *

CONCURRENT SKIES II, ALPHA LEVEL…

The long doors creaked open as the two dragon gods walked into a small, circular hallway. The floor was composed of cold, white, marble tiles that sent chills down their spines. The walls were black, with columns of white paint running down them. Hung on the walls were black tapestry, with Severus's logo stitched into them; a blood red color. Several paintings were hanging off the walls. One, for example, depicted a battle. Dragons, led by a handsome golden dragon clashing with a tribe of gryphons. "You know…" Cynder said, trying to lighten the dreary mood that hung over the two of them like a rain cloud, "you gotta admit, this is an amazing work of art." Spyro was staring at the battle painting with interest.

"This dragon… do you think its grandpa… I mean Azeroth?" Spyro asked. Cynder nodded.

"There's no doubt that it could be. Anyway, Spyro, what are we supposed to do? Where do we go from here?" Spyro pulled Bob out and turned on his GPS.

"According to this… Severus divided Concurrent Skies II into several levels… each one named after a letter in the ancient language. We're on floor alpha right now (A/N: The ancient language is actually Japanese Romanji, but the letters of the Greek alphabet have cool names, so I chose them). It looks like we have to head through a couple of rooms… oh! And a courtyard… I didn't think this is the kind of place for a courtyard!" Spyro put Bob away and walked forward to a second pair of giant doors. He took a deep breath. He suddenly turned to Cynder, a nervous grin on his face. "So… what do you think's behind this door? A puzzle, hoard of enemies, boss?"

"Spyro… quit stalling… open the door." Spyro sighed and did as he was told. They emerged in a larger, square room. The floor and walls were still the same, only this time Severus's logo was covering the entire length of the floor. It's black color making it hard to ignore. Also in the room were four circular stones. One had triangles sticking out the edge, one had squares, one had a combination, and one had none of them. "Odd…" Cynder begins. She then notices one of the corners of the room. The wall had an unusual indent in it. It seemed circular, but there were certain points where the indent went deeper, in a sort of "V" shape. Her eyes lit up with an idea. "Spyro… get that stone with the triangles and squares on it!" She called over to Spyro, who was staring at the stone.

"Got it!" He said as he pushed the stone toward Cynder. It was a lot heavier than he'd anticipated, but he finally made it over. "There… what do you want it for?" He panted. Cynder pushed the stone over to the indent in the wall. The stone fitted in their snugly and glowed with a golden energy. On the far side of the room, the two dragons could make out a giant metal bar over a pair of doors retracting into the ceiling. They nodded as they knew what to do. Spyro ran over to the stone with nothing coming out of it. He looked at the indent in the wall, which had deeper sections in it that were square shaped. He rolled the stone down toward the other end of the room and checked the indent there. The indent was circular and he pushed the stone into it. It sank into the indent and glowed as another lock disappeared. Cynder was trotting to the other corner on the same side of the room with the combination stone. She pushes it into the indent and a third lock disappears.

"Should I get the last one?" Cynder asked. Spyro shook his head.

"I have an idea, we'll do it together!" He responded. She nodded and trotted over to the last stone with Spyro following her. Together, they pushed the last stone in and the final lock retracted into the roof. Suddenly, the giant icon on the floor began glowing gold. The light flowed up toward the ceiling and formed into two small energy balls. "What the heck is that?" Spyro asks as one of the energy balls rams into him. The tiny energy ball seemed to cause Spyro a lot of pain and he grunted. The second energy ball dived at Cynder, but she quickly jumped to the side and flamed the energy ball. It merely absorbed the attack and grew bigger. Four jets of fire then appeared around the energy ball and it began spinning them around really fast.

"Look out!" Cynder called as the energy ball began moving around the room. Spyro quickly created a sheet of ice in front of him, countering the attack. He then slammed his horns into the ice wall and knocked in at the second energy ball, which flashed white for a second. The first energy ball finished its attack and the second energy ball floated over to it. The two energy balls combined and formed into a gold nightmare silhouette. "What the… is that, a nightmare?" Cynder asked. Spyro took out Bob again.

"It's an Elite Nightmare. I guess it means it's a stronger version or something… which would be bad for us!" Spyro yelled as the two dragons jumped to either side, dodging a stream of flames from the elite nightmare. The elite nightmare creates a wall of gold energy in front of him and shoots it at Cynder. Cynder sidesteps the attack and blasts the elite nightmare with a stream of electricity. The elite nightmare flashes white and disappears in a chain of mini-explosions. "Well… that was weird. But let's move on!" Spyro said as the giant pair of doors swung open. There was a brighter light coming from the other side of the door. The two dragons could tell it meant the next part was outside.

* * *

CONCURRENT SKIES II, COURTYARD, 1000 HOURS (46 hours to go)

As the two dragons emerged outside, they found themselves surrounded by tall crystals; blocking off their view of everything around them. To their surprise, there was a large, gray, marble fountain in front of it. At the bottom level of the fountain, sat three dragons, each spitting out small streams of water, and at the second and top levels sat smaller dragons. A large, marble statue of a dragon lay on a pedestal rising from the top layer of the fountain. The two dragons walked over to the fountain, gazing, mystified, at it. Cynder hopped up on the edge of the fountain and laid down. "Ugh… now that I think of it… I'm really thirsty." Cynder said to Spyro.

"Wait… how do you know Severus didn't do something with that water? Like, oh I don't know, POISON IT?" Spyro responded, cautiously. Cynder ignored her, and craned her neck forward, lapping at the water with her tongue. She turned back to face him.

"See… nothing to…" She suddenly collapsed. Spyro's eyes went wide and he ran over to her.

"Cynder?! CYNDER! Cynder, are you ok?! CYNDER! SAY SOMETHING! ANYTHING!" Suddenly, Cynder's eyes snapped open. Spyro jumped backwards, frightened.

"Ok… how about… got'ya!" She smiled and bent over to have another sip of water. Spyro walked over to her, and gently elbowed her. She yelled as she toppled into the clear, but black drink.

"Not funny, Cynder. You _really_ scared me." Spyro said as he turned away from her. A black paw grabbed the edge of the fountain, and Cynder toppled over the side and fell onto the ground. The rocky ground seemed to have a thin, chalky layer on top because when the dust settled, Cynder was now a ghostly white color. She looked at her reflection in the water and screamed. A smug grin weaved its way onto Spyro's face. "It's a good look for you!" He said, thinking of Sparx and how that would be a comment he might have said.

Before Spyro knew it, a black tail had wrapped itself around him and he was catapulted in the water with a tremendous splash. Cynder gave a sort of girly "humph" as she dived into the fountain to wash off the chalky dirt. She noticed Spyro swimming around playfully. _Man… this fountain is deep; you'd think there's a small pond under this thing._ She thought as she saw the dirt rise off of her and dissolve. She went back to Spyro, who was doing flips and spins under the water. She smiled and chased after him in a playful sort of way. She finally caught up and the two floated to the surface, laughing. They were very happy. Odd, that they would choose to swim around in a fountain in a madman's giant fortress; but they weren't normal dragons, either. As he wrung out his tail, he stared at Cynder, who was licking some of the water off her paws like a cat.

Sure, he was making his way deep into an unknown fortress, most likely filled with dangerous obstacles… but he was with Cynder. Cynder, his sister… and his love. He wouldn't have picked any other person to go through this with; not Flame, Ember, not some of his older friends; Hunter, Sheila. Well… technically, Cynder _was_ his oldest friend… as of about a week ago. Spyro quickly spotted a small pathway weaving through the wall of crystals. He nudged Cynder and the two slowly walked down the path. They emerged in a space larger than the last one. There was a large door looming in front of them. They noticed a glowing purple orb on top of the door. It suddenly glowed much brighter, and a dozen nightmares appeared.

"Well… we both knew this calm peace wouldn't last." Spyro said, his face turning serious as he got into a fighting stance. The nightmares roared and charged at the dragon gods. Spyro met the front nightmare head on and slashed him with his striker gauntlet. The nightmare struck back by using its saber, but Spyro blocked the blow with Ryu-jin. He spins around the sweeps his sword around the ground, tripping up the nightmare. Cynder jumped in from the side and destroyed it with a powerful earth pound attack. A duo of nightmares stabbed her with their electric spears. They attempt to do it again, when Cynder grabs one of the spears. She twirls the weapons around in her hands and slams it against its owner, destroying it. She swipes the spear sideways and destroys the second nightmare. She then throws the spear destroying all but two of the nightmares. The two nightmares head toward Spyro, who slams the ground with his gauntlet. A tremendous shockwave ripples out, which the nightmares jump over. Spyro smiles and lashes out at the two dark creatures with his tail, destroying them. The giant doors suddenly swing open, and an elite nightmare emerges. It raises a battle axe, which Spyro recognized as the same type of axes the Cynder Commanders in Concurrent Skies had used. A wall of purple energy appears in front of him, blocking him. The purple orb glows again and several more nightmares reappears.

Spyro throws his sword at a few of them and the sword erupts in a burst of white fire, destroying them. Spyro quickly dashes to his blade and grabs it, then casts his meteor storm spell on a pursuing nightmare. Cynder slams into a charging nightmare, knocking it into its partner and destroying them both. All the while, the purple orb begins generating more nightmares. Spyro looks at Cynder and she flies up to the purple orb. A small purple crystal is visible in the center of the orb. It suddenly detaches itself from the ceiling and flies out, ramming Cynder. Cynder recognized the being as a Conduit, one of the few enemies in her fortress that wasn't a monkey. The Conduit shoots out a beam of purple lightning at Cynder, who ducks the attack and responds by firing an earth bomb at the Conduit. The Conduit is caught up in the ensuing whirlwind, and Cynder proceeds to melee it.

Back on the ground, Spyro uses his earth pound move to fend off the swarm of nightmares. Seeing that the staggering numbers are too much for him. He rises into the air. A ball of ice begins to form around him, with shards sticking out of it. The ball explodes out, destroying the nightmares. Several more reappear and slam the ground with their maces. Spyro creates a barrier, just managing to hold off the giant shockwave. The sound of shattering glass is heard as the Conduit in the air explodes and rains tiny glass fragments onto the ground. The nightmares instantly explode. The barrier around the elite nightmare drops and he slams the ground with his axe. A shockwave of purple electricity ripples out, hitting both dragons. Spyro retaliates with his own electric arc. The elite nightmare is trapped in a cage of electricity, and Spyro proceeds to melee him multiple times. Cynder finally swoops down and slams him into one of the giant crystals. The elite nightmare is encased in mini-explosions and the giant doors swing open again.

"That wasn't so bad!" Spyro comments as the two dragons walk into the next room. Spyro's pupils grew in size, adjusting to the heavy lack of light. He suddenly saw a long abyss in front of him, stretching toward the end of the room. He waved his hand around and a small glowing orb of light appeared, revealing a bed of black spikes. He notice in front of him that there were red and purple lasers spanning the width of the abyss, randomly moving around. "Well… how do you suggest we navigate this?" Spyro asked. There was no response. "Cynder?" Spyro asked. He turned and saw that she was standing on a small platform lit up by a purple square. _Hmm… this reminds me a lot of Red's Laboratory. I wonder if we're near him._ Spyro thought as a second platform materialized and he hopped on. He quickly hunched his back low to dodge a couple of lasers, then calmly glided over a third laser. He then had to jump off the platform and grab hold of it as a wall of four lasers swept over the platform. He pulled himself back up in time to jump onto the other side of the room. Two purple orbs suddenly lit up on either side of the two dragons. They turned their backs on each other, ready to deal with the incoming Conduits. The two shoot earth bombs at the Conduits. While the enemies are trapped in the whirlwind, they jump up and melee the Conduits. The Conduits explode and the door in front of them creeks opens. Suddenly, a giant, spiked mace head rolls through the door and into the abyss.

"Did you see that?! Those mace heads were huge!" Cynder screamed as a second one rolled past them. They quickly charged into the next room and saw the source of the attack; an elite nightmare with a giant left hand punches a giant mace head and it flies at Spyro. Spyro quickly bolts to the side, dodging it. A flash of purple light strikes the platform on which the elite nightmare stands and another mace appears. "This is a new thing! And an annoying one at that!" She cries as she dodges the mace which rolls through the door.

"Apparently that weapon of his is called a K-Knuckle!" Spyro yelled back as a mace head flew at him. His eyes flashed sky blue and he stopped the mace inches away from him. He spun his hands around and the mace flew back at the elite nightmare. The elite nightmare explodes, and a staircase made of purple crystals forms in front of them. They jump up the stair case and find a doorway with three portraits surrounding it. Each one depicts an identical dog head. "Odd… why would Severus have three pictures of the same dog?" Spyro asked. Suddenly, a Boo, a classic enemy of Luigi, flew out of the top portrait.

"OOooooooooooOO! I have come to warn you! Those who try to enter this rooooooooooooom will be eaten aliiiiiiiiiive! OOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOO!!!" Spyro opens his mouth and unleashes a jet of white flames, burning the Boo. "No! I have a wife and three kids!" The Boo shouts as it erupts in flames. Spyro laughs and walks through the door.

* * *

CONCURRENT SKIES II, BETA LEVEL…

They emerged in a circular room. It was empty, except for a locked door on the other end. There was a second door to their right. "That's weird…" Cynder said. Suddenly, the ground began shaking. A loud, barking noise was heard and the doors to their right burst open. Standing in front of them was a giant, three-headed dog. "So that's why there were three paintings…" Cynder said. The three heads barked at the two tiny dragons, sending them careening into the wall. Cynder sticks her tongue out in disgust. "YUCK! Would it _kill_ you to brush your teeth every now and then?!" She complains. The three heads each reveal rows of vicious fangs.

"N-N-Nice puppy… g-g-good doggy! D-D-Don't hurt us, p-p-please! I don't taste good! I know I may _look_ appetizing, but I'm all scaly and slimy! Really!" Spyro licks his arm, demonstrating. Cynder stares at him, then at the dog. The center head is reading a dog collar labeled: _To Fluffy, from daddy Severus_.

"Funny… I always imagined Severus was more of a cat person…" Cynder mumbled to herself. Suddenly, a giant paw slams down on her, flattening her. "OKAY! NOW… I'M ANGRY!" She growls and spits a black fireball at Fluffy. Fluffy merely bats the fireball away with one of its giant paws. Cynder stares at the scene in horror and anger. Spyro, meanwhile, is trying to dodge Fluffy's tail, which is attempting to knock him from the sky like a fly swatter. Spyro flies over to Fluffy's side and kicks it. The attack seems to have no affect, and Fluffy barks at Spyro, shooting him into the ground. Cynder waves one of her hands in the air and a bolt of white lightning zaps Fluffy's central face. The dog howls as a white steam flies out from it. The steam forms into a Boo-shaped nightmare and explodes. Fluffy's eyes change from a red color to a blue. It suddenly leans one of its heads forward and licks Spyro and Cynder. Cynder stares at Fluffy. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww! First that geeky chameleon and now I get a slobber bath courtesy of a giant, three-headed dog!" She cries as she runs her left hand over her right arm, scooping up a thick layer of the sticky water.

"It tickles! Stop that! Ha ha ha!" Spyro laughs as Fluffy continues to lick the purple dragon, its other head playfully barking. The left-most head reaches and grabs a giant soccer ball in its maw. There is a loud squeak and it drops the ball in front of Spyro; whose scales are glimmering under the light given off by the sticky saliva. "Oh… you play fetch?" Spyro levitates the ball in the air, and throws it through the open door. Fluffy happily barks and runs out the door after it. The two dragons quickly run through the now-unlocked door, leaving a silver trail behind them.

"How can you live with yourself?!" Cynder asks, irritated. Spyro rolls his eyes.

"I fell into a _vat_ of _salad dressing!_ I think I can handle giant, mutant dog saliva, Cynder." He paused. "Wow… if that didn't just come out of my own mouth… I wouldn't believe it. Some adventure this has been… no one's going to believe a word of this back home." He continued. Suddenly, a voice echoed back at him.

"You're right. I've been listening to you two for a few minutes and I'm already ready to call the mental ward." A robot stepped out of the shadows. The two dragons recognized it. "Ah… you seem to be familiar with me. No… you've just seen my biometal. I'm the _real_ Phantom. And I cannot allow you any further!"

"Oh… and why is that?" Cynder retorted angrily. Phantom frowned.

"I've seen _things_. You will bring nothing but the end of humanity if you defeat Severus!"

"But wouldn't we bring the end of humanity if we _didn't_ defeat Severus?!" Cynder responded, getting angrier.

"That's not important. I must destroy you two now." Phantom put his two hands together and vanished in a puff of smoke. He reappears behind Cynder and launches a shuriken at her. It stabs her in the back and returns to Phantom. He jumps on it and begins riding around, throwing daggers in every direction. Cynder kicks them away and viciously slashes Phantom, damaging him. Phantom jumps into the air and several spears fly down on to the ground. Spyro is stabbed by one in his hind leg, the same one where the sharp ice dagger had embedded itself at the beginning of this adventure. Spyro yelped in pain as Phantom vanished in another puff of smoke.

He reappears and throws out a shuriken. The shuriken breaks apart into several small daggers that fly out in random directions. Cynder's eyes glow blue and she stops the daggers and turns them back on Phantom. Phantom quickly dashes to the left, dodging them. He puts his hands together and splits into four identical shadow clones. The clones begin flying around the arena and rearrange themselves in a line. They begin chucking daggers at Cynder, who tries her best dodging them. A large energy crescent suddenly ripples through the shadow clones, hurting the real Phantom. He stands up and opens his mouth. Red flames fly out of his mouth, which Spyro overpowers with his white flames. Phantom is burned by the attack. He throws another shuriken which Spyro dodges. He hops on the shuriken and begins chasing after Spyro, tossing daggers at him. Spyro, out of breath, is stabbed down the back by three of the daggers. He pulls them out and tosses them back at Phantom, who jumps off his shuriken and begins running on the ceiling, tossing daggers at Spyro and Cynder.

Seeing Cynder collapsed on the ground from Phantom's previous attack on her, Spyro dashes over to her. He grabs her and runs as Phantom gives chase. "You can't run from me." Phantom calls out as he chucks three shurikens forward. They break apart into smaller daggers, tripping Spyro up and causing him to fall flat on his face. Phantom unleashes more fire on Spyro. Spyro slashes the flames with his gauntlet, destroying the attack and hitting Phantom with an energy crescent. He slams into the wall. "Well fought…" He muttered as a white steam evaporated out of him. It reformed into a Boo nightmare and it exploded.

Spyro notices Phantom's eyes changing color, like Fluffy's. "Urgh… what happened… ah!" Phantom kneels in front of Spyro. "I am not worthy, oh mighty dragon god." Spyro looked at him. It looked like he was serious and he was really _kneeling_ before him.

"Um… thanks for the little intro… but my sister and I must be on our way." He walked over to Cynder and helped her up.

"Wait… take this." Phantom kneeled again, this time in front of Cynder. A black sword appeared in a puff of smoke. The handle was sleek, black, and spiral shaped. "This is the Shadow Katana… I know it as the 'Blade of the Shadows'. May the great eye grant you success on your mission." He turns into a small white beam and flies up out of the room. Cynder weighed the katana in her hands. She'd never used a sword before, let alone held one. She didn't even have a sheath! But as she thought this, the katana dematerialized. She stared at her empties hands and thought about the blade. In an instant, it returned to her hands the way she'd left it.

"Interesting…" She muttered. She thought about it disappearing and it dissolved into the air once again.

"…are you coming?" Spyro echoes from across the room. Cynder nods and trots over to him. He nods and pushes the doors open. They emerge in a long hallway. A red, silk carpet extended out in front of them, going up a long staircase and ending in front of a door with Severus's logo painted on it in red. "Hmm… I feel… something; an enemy. But it's more powerful than everyone else we've faced. You think it's one of Severus's minions?" Cynder shrugged and took a step forward. Instantly, a Conduit appeared and slammed Cynder with its electric legs. Spyro ran up to it and trapped it in an earth bomb, killing it. "You okay?" He asked. She nodded and stood up, continuing forward. Two more Conduits materialized out of thin air and attempted to slam the dragons with their large glass bodies. They quickly dispose of them and move forward, up the staircase. A sign is painted on the door in front of them.

"Enigma Project executive 1… Red. Do not disturb." Cynder read her voice cold and flat. "I guess you were right, Spyro. Ready?" Spyro nodded and the two of them pushed the door open. They emerged on a small alcove, overlooking a circular arena surrounded by lava. Sure enough, Red was sitting on a throne on the opposite side of the room. The throne looked exactly like the one in Chaos Angel. He instantly put the book he was reading down and took of the pair of glasses he was wearing.

"You know… I was just getting to the good part of the book." He taunted, as the throne lifted itself off of the alcove and hovered down to one side of the arena. Spyro and Cynder quickly jumped down to the other.

"Well Red… are you actually going to fight us this time? Or do you have another weird minion to do the dirty work?" Spyro asked, smirking at his enemy. Red frowned.

"Oh you _are_ hilarious, Spyro! But I don't think you'll be laughing for much longer!" Red extended a long red talon and pressed the left arm of the throne. Seven purple bolts of lightning struck the arena and seven nightmares appeared. "I have _plenty_ of minions at my disposal. I _loathe_ you Spyro. How I do wish I had your powers. But, alas, we can't always get what we want. But we can BURY those who have what we desire! DIE, SPYRO!" He whistled and the nightmares charge forward, brandishing long, black sabers. Spyro and Cynder quickly combined their earth pound attacks, knocking the nightmares into the lava. Suddenly, seven giant fireballs spiral into the air and dive onto the arena.

The fireballs explode, engulfing the two dragon gods in flames. They shake off the attack, and brandish their blades. Spyro slams Ryu-jin into the ground, causing a large purple shockwave to ripple out. Cynder destroys an incoming nightmare with the shadow katana. A black shadow ball suddenly appears and homes in on the nearest nightmare, destroying it as well. Red claps as Spyro destroys the last nightmare with a blast of electricity. "Very well done, you two! You show great fighting spirit! This may actually be challenging!" Red presses the same button with his sharp claw. Seven nightmares appear, but something is different about them. They are nightmares of creatures from Bowser's army. Cynder remembers the descriptions Bowser had given her. The nearest nightmare; a Goomba quickly headbonks Cynder, and she rolls backwards from the force of the attack, into a Hammer Bro. nightmare which uppercuts her with his hammer. Spyro quickly flies into the air and grabs Cynder. He shoots several fireballs at the pursuing Paragoomba, destroying it. A hammer collides with him and the two dragons plummet down to the arena. Two Koopatrol nightmares slam Spyro with the spiked-ends of their shells, impaling him. He roars in pain and unleashes a powerful eruption of fire. The white flames swirl around him and explode outward, like a fury but more devastating. The nightmares are all quickly destroyed.

A laser suddenly blasts him in the back. An elite nightmare appeared, and this one had a jet pack and laser gun. Spyro flew at it but the elite nightmare barrel rolled to the side, dodging him. The elite nightmare blasts Spyro with his gun and he growls in pain. Red laughs as he watches Cynder get punches by a K-Knuckle elite nightmare. She quickly gets to her feet and summons an electric orb which encases her body. Suddenly, several blue electrical bolts fly out of the orb and rain down on the elite nightmare, destroying it. Spyro, meanwhile, manages to slash the leg of the elite nightmare with his gauntlet. He takes advantage of the opening and severs the nightmare with another powerful slash from his gauntlet. Suddenly, three giant Bulldozer Mechaniloids appear in the center of the arena. They shoot out small lasers at the two dragons, but they easily dodge the attack. Spyro suddenly releases previously stored energy in a massive fury of snow and hail known as "Blizzard Fury". Red frowns at this.

"BAH! This is too easy for you!" Red jumps off of his throne, landing in the center of the arena. "I'll show you two I don't need fancy powers to beat you!" His ice wand appears in his hands and he waves it around. A barrier appears around him and he fires out ice shards at the two dragons. They easily dodge the attack. Red growls, "stupid dragons!" He yells as he begins his prolonged ice blast attack. Spyro and Cynder fly into the air, dodging the attack again.

"You can't touch us with those _old_ moves, _old_ man!" Cynder taunts, sticking her tongue out at him. Red growls and slams the ground with his ice wand. Ice shards appear on the ceiling and fall downward. Spyro and Cynder can't dodge the attack and plummet to the ground. Red slams the ground and a shockwave of ice shards fly out at them. They jump over the attack. Red waves his ice wand and several TNT crates fall from the ceiling. Spyro quickly uses his water breath and slams a crate into Red, destroying his barrier. Cynder pushes two more crates into him, damaging him. He growls and stomps his foot on the ground. Suddenly, large circles open up on the outside ring of the arena, and magma shoots up through it. Red creates another barrier and begins firing ice shards again.

Spyro quickly dives out of the way of a burst of fire and runs straight into and ice shard; he's frozen solid. Red flies over to him and slams him with his tail, breaking the ice and hurting him. He flies back into the center of the arena as the magma jets ware off. He raises his medallion and a fast moving laser launches itself at Cynder. She quickly dives to the side, dodging it. He fires another laser from his medallion which Cynder barely dodges, again. He waves his ice wand and more TNT crates fall from the ceiling. Cynder opens her mouth and unleashes a stream of earth breath, pushing a crate into Red and destroying his barrier. Spyro and Cynder push a few more crates at him.

"GAAAAAARH! I hate you little pests! That's it! I shall make use of the great invention Severus left at my disposal! Red hops into the air and sits atop the throne again. "Bring it…!" He growls. The two arms of the throne open up, and two missiles spiral toward the dragons. They quickly dive to the side, taking a little damage from the ensuing explosions. The "V" shape top of the throne glows and a beam of electricity is suddenly connecting the two top sections. An energy ball forms in the middle of the beam and several bolts of blue electricity fly out, overwhelming Spyro and Cynder and damaging them. They struggle to their feet as a laser cannon appears out of the base of the throne. It sweeps a red laser around the arena. And second later, the arena is engulfed in flames. The two dragons quickly fly into the air as the arena floor erupts in a fiery inferno.

"Oh… so we're fighting in the air, eh? No big deal!" Spyro growls as he conjures an electric orb and slams it at one of the arms of the throne. That section of the throne flashes white. Cynder, who flew up behind Red, casts blizzard and damages the laser cannon. The electric orb on top of the throne glows again, and several small energy balls fly out at the two dragons. They counter the attack with their electricity breath and Spyro shoots an electric ark at the laser cannon. Cynder flies up to the laser cannon which is charging up for an attack. She waves her hands and a black barrier forms around the cannon. It unleashes its attack, but the barrier block it and the laser cannon explodes. Red is almost thrown off of the chair from the explosion, and Cynder careens into the wall. The electric orb on top of the throne glows again and fires out a steady stream of electricity. Spyro spirals around it and delivers a flaming uppercut to the throne's left arm, which explodes. The other arm opens up and shoots a missile at Spyro, which he destroys with his gauntlet.

"Loathsome pests! Die!" Red calls out as he begins firing ice shards from his wand in addition to the energy balls being fired from the top of the throne. Cynder sees an opportunity; Red's preoccupied with Spyro. She flies next to the throne and unleashes an earth fury, destroying the other arm and the top of the throne. The entire throne slowly descends toward the lava pit below. "NO! NO! NOOOOOOOO! I'll get my revenge on you, Spyro the dragon… somehow!" The throne collides with the lava and explodes in a flash of orange. Spyro and Cynder quickly bolt toward the door on the other alcove and fly through it, slamming it closed behind them. The room quickly rumbles and then goes silent. They let out sighs of relief, and collapse on the floor to catch their breath.

"_Hmm… they've bested my weakest minion? No matter… I'm sure that my little invention will stop them in their tracks. Ah ha ha ha ha!" _

END CHAPTER 35!

"_**With a small breeze blowing in through a tiny open window, Spyro and Cynder sit there, wondering what challenges await them next. Truly, this is the greatest peril they've ever faced. But the important part is, they're together."**_

Next time, Chapter 36- Concurrent Skies II, part 2


	37. Concurrent Skies II, part 2

* * *

**Author's Note: I got The Eternal Night last Tuesday night. So that explains why this update took so long for me to finish. And you can expect the updates to come this slowly for a little while. It's a **_**very**_** addicting game. But, enough about that, enjoy the next chapter!**

**Chapter 36- Concurrent Skies II, part 2**

CONCURRENT SKIES II, LEVEL GAMMA, 1230 HOURS (43.5 hours to go)

As the two young dragons stood up, they realized the room they were standing in seemed empty; and there was no second door leading anywhere. Then, a bright light caught their attention. Spyro noticed a tiny purple energy ball floating there. He stared at it curiously for a few second, but it just continued floating there. Its warm glow seemed to be attracting the young dragon. He trotted over to it, mesmerized. He reached a purple paw forward and tapped the energy ball. It grew a little in size and glowed even brighter. It floated over to another section of the room, and Spyro trotted after it. He touched it again, and it grew bigger… AGAIN, and went to another part of the room… AGAIN. Cynder stared at him. _Such childlike behavior… he looks like he hasn't a care in the world_. She thought as Spyro happily chased the purple orb around the room. Suddenly, the energy ball collided with the wall. In a bright flash of light, a large doorway appeared. Cynder just stared at the door, then Spyro, then the door, and then Spyro once more. _Never mind…_ she thought as she trotted through it, Spyro following.

They emerged in a square room. A door was on the other side, but a giant lock was bolted on top of it. They also noticed several mirrors around the room, as well as a beam of light that spanned the length of the room. Spyro reached out and touched the light, feeling its warmth. "It's harmless…" He exclaimed. Cynder slowly reached her paw forward and touched the beam. A warm, soothing sensation flowed through her. She felt her sore muscles and aching limbs relaxing; it was a nice feeling. She noticed Spyro pacing around one of the mirrors. "I remember… something like this… from when we were in the Dark Master's lair. I think we need to use these mirrors on the beam of light." He pushed the mirror in front of him toward the beam. It hit the mirror and bounced off, now pointing toward the back corner of the room. He motioned with his head to a mirror in that corner. Cynder nodded and charged toward it, pushing it into the beam, which bounced off the mirror and now shot across the _other_ side of the room.

Spyro pushed one of the mirrors in the center of the room forward. The beam of light shot across to the other side of the room. Cynder pushed the other mirror in the center forward. The beam of light collided with the lock and it dissolved into a black, shadowy substance. The matter reformed into black, dog-shaped, silhouette. It howled and took several steps backwards, before charging forward and slamming into Cynder. "Hey… don't hurt her!" Spyro yelled. The nightmare dingo howled again and prepared to dash at Spyro. But Spyro was faster and used his comet dash, killing the dingo instantly. He helped Cynder to her feet, and the two walked through the door.

* * *

LIBRARY OF THE DARK LORD…

There was one word to describe what was in front of the two dragonlings; shocking. The black and white walls were masked by bookshelves stretching up toward the ceiling. Rows of tables and chairs fill the center of the giant library. All of them were black, with Severus's logo painted across them; an eerie silver color. Cynder decided to walk into one of the aisles of books on the left side of the room, labeled "Dragon Folklore". Spyro happened to notice a stack of books on one of the chairs. Ever since he met The Chronicler, he'd become fascinated by the history of the dragons. He couldn't help but pick up the book on the top. His face froze when he saw the cover. It had Cynder on it, and the title read "The Dark Dragon's Tales" he looked down and saw the author of the book, "Kira Hitokiri". "DAMMIT!" Spyro slammed the book against the table. The sound of shattering glass was heard and the table exploded into tiny fragments. Spyro remembered Kira; the dragon Severus had trained to attempt to kill him once Cynder was frozen.

The book was opened to a page. He cautiously walked up to it, and peered at the book. To his surprise, the book was actually enchanted. It was playing out the story like it was a movie…

* * *

_FLASHBACK…_

"_Well… what's going on?" A deep voice grunted. A massive ape loomed above a small, black, motionless egg. It was flanked by two smaller monkeys. One of them tapped the egg. _

"_The dragon is still dormant… master." The soldier proclaimed. The massive ape's face creased in anger. The soldier silently swore. He had heard about what happens to people who make the Ape King angry. If they're lucky, they're only tossed from the second highest floor of the massive fortress, Concurrent Skies. The Ape King grabbed the soldier by the cloth he wore and yanked him up to his level. _

"_Now see here… that egg will hatch… NOW! Or you'll suffer the consequences!" He dropped the soldier to the ground, and he scrambled over to a sparkling blue gem. He pressed his tiny sword to the gem, and it glowed with the power of spirit energy. He went over to the egg and tapped it with his sword. _

_Nothing._

_The Ape King was furious. He seized the soldier again. "Oh great Gaul… please have mercy! It is not my fault!" But Gaul was not feeling compassionate that day. With a mighty toss, the soldier flew out the window, screeching loudly. When the screams instantly stopped, Gaul turned to the egg. The second soldier had already run out of the room, afraid he'd be the next to go. _

"_Bah… if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself!" Gaul muttered. He pointed a large staff, topped by a glowing green crystal at the egg. A green bolt of energy flew out and collided with the egg, which rolled backwards from the force of the blast. Suddenly, a small, but clear crack appeared on the top of the egg. A smile creased Gaul's face. The crack got larger and a tiny black head popped out of the egg. "It's alive!" Gaul yelled, as the rest of the egg broke, allowing the little black hatchling to move about freely. It sniffed at the floor, curiously. It turned its head and noticed Gaul. Its tail began wagging like a happy puppy and it squeaked. It jumped up and tackled Gaul, which came as a surprise given Gaul's physique. "Hmm… quite strong… aren't you?" Gaul growled as he got to his feet. The little black dragon squeaked again. "Bah… I have no time for cute little faces. GUARD! SIEZE HER!" The little dragon froze. The doors swung open and two apes only slightly smaller than Gaul stormed into the room. The hatchling quickly saw the approaching danger, and slipped around on the marble floor; trying to get her footing. She suddenly dashed right under the giant apes and out the door. "YOU IMBECILES! GET HER! SOUND THE ALARMS!" He roared. The two disgruntled apes were groaning and rubbing their heads. Suddenly, green light enveloped them, and they were transformed into statues. _

_The black dragon screamed as it slid across the floor, dodging two soldiers. Suddenly, two slightly larger apes appeared; leaders. They were not as well respected as the commanders, but were of a higher rank than the tiny soldiers. They whipped out a couple of bombs. The little dragon suddenly turned and went through an open door. She suddenly realized she was not standing on solid ground. She flapped her helpless wings as she fell several stories and collapsed on the ground with a thud. A red box suddenly enveloped her. _

_CONVEXITY…_

_The little black dragon appeared on a giant platform. A bright beam of purple light shot up from an altar in the center of the platform. "Someone's being a naughty little dragon… aren't we? Ah ha ha ha ha!" A voice yelled out. The hatchling curled up into a ball, afraid of the voice. "NOW! BLAST HER!" it yelled. A terrifying, deep, roar was heard, and a beam of dark energy flew out of the purple light. It stuck the hatchling, and she screamed as she suddenly began to grow larger, and her voice was getting deeper. The scream suddenly became an angry roar. The voice laughed again, as Severus floated out from the shadows. "Tell me… how do you feel?" He asked, smiling. The giant black dragon shook out its giant body. _

"_I feel… powerful." She responded, gasping at what escaped her mouth. Severus turned to the purple light. _

"_You've done well, oh foolish one." He said, smiling. A loud roar was heard. The black dragon draped her wings over her head. _

"_Wh-What is that?" She asked, terrified. Severus laughed. _

"_That… is your master… sort of… the Dark Master. You will do all his trusted general, Gaul tells you to do…" The black dragon growled. Suddenly, she howled in pain as Severus electrocuted her. "Bite your tongue. While you are a part of this, you will do__** exactly**__ and I mean __**exactly**_ _as you're told! Got it?" He yelled. A few tear drops appeared on the dragon's face. Severus electrocuted her again. "Stop crying this instance! Such emotions only get in the way of things! You must abandon the urge to cry! Now… I'm sure that Gaul wants you to free the Dark Master. And that's fine and all. But I have a bigger assignment for you." He floated closer to the cowering dragon. "There is but a dragon that managed to escape the raid. The goal of the raid was to destroy this particular dragon. He is a purple dragon. He will cause great suffering to all of us as long as he exists. You must destroy him… by any means necessary. Got it?" The dragon nodded. Severus nodded. "Very well." Suddenly, the black dragon hissed slightly. "What is it now?" Severus asked. _

"_I-I don't know. Some sort of pain… in the middle of my body." She responded. _

"_You're hungry… you need __**food**__." Severus snaps his fingers. A plate appears, with some sort of meat on it. The dragon begins tearing into it with her mighty fangs. "Hmmm… now, you need a name. Something that will strike fear into the hearts of those you come across…" Severus snaps his fingers again. "I've got it… Cynder. That's your name. All will address you as either 'Master' or 'Cynder'. And you respond to nothing else. Well… it is time for us to part, Cynder." As Cynder finished off the meat, she faced Severus. _

"_Wait… will I ever see you again?" Severus smiled. _

"_That… is for fate… and destiny to determine. Ah ha ha ha! Ciao!" Severus snapped his fingers and vanished. A moment later, Cynder was back in the fortress. Gaul was in front of her; now much smaller than her in size. He stared, wide-eyed at this. _

"_Our master has given me a great power… with it, I must bring him back. This is what you desire of me, no?" Cynder asks. Gaul slowly nods. Cynder bows. "Then it shall be done. But I must ask to be supplied with many troops, with which to accomplish such a task." An evil grin formed on Gaul's face. _

"_Very well… come with me." The two walked off down the hall. _

* * *

WOOSH! The sound of a stream of fire echoed through the library. The flaming object was quickly extinguished by drops of water; tear drops. The item's ashes float off in the breeze. Spyro was beyond anger. How could _she_ of anyone written a book about Cynder being a dark dragon? Last time Spyro checked, she _willingly_ gave herself up to Severus, so that a large group of dragons could safely make it to the Dragon Temple. And she'd already made it to the temple! Not only that, she_let_ Severus give her an amulet with a broken fragment of the master dark gem. _And she was calling __**her**__ a dark dragon?_ The rage bubbled within him, ready to explode out… like… like… and before he knew it, his actions had taken over. He was hovering in the air, a white aura surrounding him. A bright flash later, the entire library was a burning pile of ashes. He froze… staring at the scene. He didn't just… he couldn't have… but it looks so much like… he did a fury… And then he heard it; crying. Spyro's eyes widened; in his deranged thinking, he'd forgotten Cynder was in the library with him!

He charged forward, extinguishing flames with his ice and water breaths, till he found her; curled up in a small ball in the corner, burned from his attack. He wanted to say something… anything… even "I'm sorry"… but he couldn't. He was just too scared by this… this chain of terrible events. And then… she hissed. "What were you thinking…?" The words struck him… like poisoned darts. They tug at his heart, the pain was unbearable.

"I wasn't! I wasn't! I didn't! I couldn't have! It can't be!" He was delirious… he could tell. His mind was engulfed in a swirling cloud of emotions, confusion, shock, and horror. "It wasn't me! It couldn't have… it was… _just a book…_" His own words hit him, like a heavy ton of bricks. It _was_ just a _book_. It was written by a former enemy… an _enemy_. Of course _she'd_ try and stir up trouble like this with something like that. Then… the pain… it went from his head and his heart, to his face. He was bleeding; there were claw marks. But he didn't care. He could just walk into the raging inferno behind him; but he wouldn't care at all. In fact, he noticed he was now facing the raging inferno. _Wait… what am I thinking? _There was silence in his head. It was all too much for him. Before he knew it, he'd broken down the exit door and charged into the next room, tears trailing behind him.

Cynder just stared at the open door. Should she chase him? Was it an accident? Did something happen? She was too quick to assume he'd done it with an intention of harming her; she knew that. Yet, she couldn't stop herself from slashing him across the cheek. She felt like she _had_ to do it. But maybe Spyro _had_ to use a fury attack. Maybe he was in some sort of pain; an inner pain, yes, but it was still pain. And she hated seeing him this way. She got up, and walked to the door. To her shock, it was closed. She tugged on the handles; nothing. Did Spyro lock it? No… Spyro would never do something like that… would he?

* * *

MEANWHILE…

"Hmph… I was expecting you to be further in this wretched place, Spyro." The dark voice exclaimed. Spyro stood there, perfectly still, his eyes shut tight. "Well… say something." There was a long pause. "Hmm…? You're still fighting it? Ah, of course… always a fighter till the end! Give it a rest!" There was a bright flash, and Spyro's eyes snapped open, glowing red. "Good, good…"

"I'm sorry, master Guy. I didn't expect the fortress to be filled with as many things as there actually are." Spyro responded. Guy laughed.

"Ha! Nice excuse, Spyro… but you're not fooling me. Hurry up! You know well you have to kill Severus for our plan to succeed." Spyro nodded. "Before I go, though, enlighten me… how many Chaos Emeralds do you have?" Spyro frowned.

"Six…" He said his voice flat and cold.

"Tsk, tsk… we're really not doing well today, are we?" Guy said, holding out the seventh emerald. "Anyway…"Guy clears his throat and snaps his fingers. Spyro's eyes flash back to their normal purple color. He grips his head in pain, but turns startled at Guy, who's still in front of them. "Surprise! You found me! Or rather… _I found you_." At that moment, the door burst open, and Cynder stormed into the room. She was angry; but he wasn't sure what it was about.

"I thought you'd be here…" She hissed. Was Guy controlling her… she didn't seem like her usual self. Then he noticed; the comment was directed at Guy. He merely chuckled.

"Bah! Worthless dragons like the foolish dark dragon deserve to rot in the pit of despair!" He retorted. Cynder's face creased in anger.

"How dare you… you have no right calling me _that_… that _thing!_" A wall of flames were somehow launched out of her mouth, and collided with Spyro. He crashed into the wall; but Cynder ignored this. "You weren't even alive then, _human_!" She hissed, spewing out more flames in the process.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA! You are but a mere pawn... a pawn I tell you! You… a pawn in the Omega Dragon's great scheme for world conquest!" Omega Dragon? What in the name of the ancestors was an Omega Dragon? It sounded dangerous. "Oh? You seem troubled… oh! You don't know what the Omega Dragon is!"

"THE OMEGA DRAGON IS A LIE! IT DOESN'T EXIST!" Came a roar from the corner. Spyro's eyes were glowing gold. "SHUT THE HELL UP, GUY!" Guy laughed.

"You don't believe me? Pity… you shall meet my successful attempt at it soon enough. But for now, I offer a challenge." A book appeared in his hands. "You shouldn't have burnt down Severus's library. It had some valuable books on the Omega Dragon. I think _this_ one will satisfy you… _if_ you can defeat…" Guy snapped his fingers. The two dragons stared in shock as Prometheus and Pandora appeared in a flash of light.

"But… that's impossible! They've been trapped in a god damn cage the entire time!" Spyro yelled.

"Ignorant child!" Pandora responded, shooting an electric stream at him. "Severus is but a weak-minded fool! He will die soon enough."

"How can _you_ say that? Working for Guy?! Have you no shame?!" Cynder spat at her, angrily swinging her tail back and forth, the blade gleaming in the light.

"WAH HA HA HA HA! We thought the greatest power in the world was the great Dr. Weil… but we were proven wrong! There exists a great destructive force in this universe… but you two won't live long enough to see it! WAH HA HA HA HA!" Guy vanished. Second later, Prometheus vanished, and Pandora spun her staff around, disappearing. Pandora reappears and chucks her staff at Spyro. It erupts in an inferno of crimson flames. Spyro roars as the fire seers through him. Pandora catches her staff and spins it around, vanishing again. She reappears on one side of the room. A swirling blue aura appears around her, and she begins swooping at the helpless dragons. Seconds later, Prometheus scythe dives into Cynder, creating a giant gash across her back. He charges forward, his scythe blade blocking a melee from Cynder. He charges forward again, the energy crescent he creates knocking Cynder into Pandora, freezing her instantly. Prometheus uses his whirlwind and rockets into the air, while Pandora's staff hovers above her. She raises her hands and beams of electricity rain down on the dragons from the ceiling. Spyro creates a sapphire barrier, deflecting the blow, then attacks Pandora with Ryu-jin. She flashes white; stunned. She quickly spins her staff around, vanishing.

Prometheus appears on the floor. Suddenly, multicolored spikes begin jutting out around the arena floor. One of them succeeds in impaling Cynder's tail. She screams and grabs her tail, the red, sticky blood rubbing against her paws. Angered by this, Spyro charges Prometheus and uses his electric spin attack, knocking Prometheus into a cage of electricity. He doesn't stop there; he begins a furious melee combo on Prometheus. He then raises his hands and blue electric bolt forms in his hand. He stabs Prometheus with it, and a terrifying sonic boom launches Prometheus into the wall. "WAH HA HA! Not bad, kid! But we're just getting warmed up!" Prometheus vanishes and Pandora appears in the center of the area. She suddenly detached the two sections on her helmet. One of them transforms into an electric orb, the other, an ice diamond. The two items begin circling around the arena, trying to ram the two dragons. Spyro activates Dragon Time while Pandora is spinning her staff around, and succeeds to hit her with his earth pound move.

Prometheus reappears in the center of the arena. Four black flames fly out towards the corners of the arena. They begin shooting purple energy balls at Spyro and Cynder. Cynder, despite her aching pains, dashes towards Prometheus and slashes him with her tail. He begins flashing white. He disappears, and Pandora reappears in the center of the arena. She detaches the sides of her helmet again. This time, a horizontal wall of electricity is created between the two segments, and the wall tries to slam the two dragons. But Cynder thrusts her arms in the air. Boulders begin raining down from the sky, destroying the segments. Then, several green shockwaves ripple out, hitting Pandora. She begins flashing white. "But how? I-I-Impossible… Urgh… we shall return…" She is encased by several miniature explosions. Suddenly, all is quiet. Spyro rushes over to Cynder, who is collapsed in a pool of blood.

"Cy-Cynder! Cynder! Wake up! Please…" Spyro shook her and her eyes snapped open. He let out a long sigh of relief. "You scared me… all that power…" Suddenly, he was smacked on the face. He stared at her, blankly, for several seconds. It felt as if some great pain had evaporated from his head.

"You do _not_ attack _me_ like that… EVER! GOT IT?!" Cynder yelled. Spyro just blinked. She stared at him. "Very funny… the silent treatment… you want to explain what made you fly off the handle… or are you just going to stare at the wall?!" She slashed him across the chest. He shook his head.

"Huh… uh… what… no… you… but…" Before he knew it, he was squeezing her very tightly, crying. "It's not fair! It's not fair! It's like he can see through my mind! It's not fair!" She quickly pushed him off of her.

"What's not fair? What are you saying, Spyro… get a hold of yourself!" She slashed him again. The pain was striking realization into him; it was awful. He let a few simple pages of some stupid book take over his mind.

"It… was a book… about you… about how you were born… it was like _he_ was taking the one thing I hated more than anything, and showing it to me until I just… broke down."

"The one thing you hate more than anything… when I was evil?" She asked. Spyro shook his head.

"No… someone or something… hurting you… I can't stand that." He said. She stared at him; no normal person… heck, no normal _anything_ for that matter, would be irked that much by someone harming one who's close to them. But… he was Spyro. Spyro willingly killed himself to save Ember… he willingly went to the Mountain of Malefor to save her from Gaul… he willingly went through Severus's military HQ to save her and the other allies, he even teamed up with Pandora to try and do it. She saw the pain in his eyes, and she understood this. But her thoughts were quickly cleared… by a white light. The book! She'd forgotten Guy's little "bet". She elbowed Spyro, and they trotted over to the book, which magically opened to a specific page. Spyro noticed the title, "Magical Myths: Fact or Fiction?"

**Chapter 21- The Omega Dragon**

_The legend of the Omega Dragon is not so much one believed by dragons… or any magical creature for that matter. At the first mention of this name, a magical creature would find themselves in prison or a mental ward. Rather, it is a belief held strongly by certain mortal individuals. These individuals also believe that a god exists who's mightier than both Vic and Tray; claiming that he is "The Eye of the Worlds" or Yahweh. These peoples formed a group, the "Seeing Eye" brotherhood. Members of the clan are generally known by the red robes they wear, and how red hoods cover up their faces. The robes have a mark of an upside down pyramid, with an eye in the center. _

Spyro gasped; that was the mark on his paw. And it was given to him by a Yahweh…

_These people are generally secretive, and live isolated lives in the mountains, interacting only with other members of the brotherhood. They follow a motto that "the blind man masks the truth". _

The blind man _masks_ the truth. That made to sense, at least, not to Spyro… or Cynder, whose face was twisted in confusion.

_According to tales from the brotherhood, the Omega Dragon was a dragon existing before either of the two present-day realms existed, some 20,000 years ago. Legend has it he was a dragon who Yahweh created because his old age made him incapable of continuing to protect the world from forces of great evil, which were led by a creature whom the brotherhood call Satan, or The Devil. Legend states this dragon did something incredible; it breathed fire before it was even hatched. The elder dragons of this time were amazed by such a feet. When the dragon hatched, it suddenly started breathing ice also. No dragon in the history of these realms knew how to use anything except fire. It continued to stun them, using an electric, water, and earth type breath. It even created a mix of all of these elements, which was known as the Breath of Darkness; but magical creatures today know it as the unseen, mystic Convexity Breath. But, one night, Satan had his dark armies raid the home of the Omega Dragon, killing his family and several close friends. Angered by this, the Omega Dragon unleashed a devastating attack, now called a "fury". It destroyed The Devil's entire army, and ultimately The Devil himself. But in the process of the attack, he killed thousands of innocent magical creatures. The brotherhood claims the range of the attack was greater than that of any weapons capable of being crafted today. _

_Angered by this, the elder dragons destroyed his home, and banished him, at the young age of only 13. The Omega Dragon blamed Yahweh for this, and to get revenge, stole a mystical staff. Using unique magical powers; and magic was something no dragon had ever known… he __**transformed**__ everything. The creatures all lost their powers, then changed forms into humans. Yahweh was shocked at this, and left his palace to slaughter the Omega Dragon. But the Omega Dragon was smarter; he froze himself deep within a cave. Not only that, he transformed himself into a human, so Yahweh wouldn't know it was him. According to the brotherhood, the human was freed from the ice by mountain climbers quite recently. He started off his mean streak as a "serial killer", which they claim is one of the most feared things in this bizarre dimension. According to them, the Omega Dragon humanoid will try and find his way into our dimension. Why? They claim he wishes to reverse his spell, and become a dragon again. But to do that, he needs the blood of a specific dragon; one that was Vic and Tray's attempt at "recreating" the Omega Dragon. No one knows who this dragon is. The brotherhood claims that that dragon will rid the worlds of a long-living and deadly evil. And will not-long-after be killed by the Omega Dragon. _

"This is ridiculous! Who would ever believe something like this?!" Cynder exclaimed. Spyro, on the other hand, stared at the article. His head hurt… and he couldn't help but think about something he remembered Vic telling him.

_You and Severus; only one of you will live when the battle is done. _

He gulped; sure, this chapter was talking complete nonsense, but it sounded like the dragon they were describing…

…was him.

And then it echoed through his mind again.

_You are not safe…_

END CHAPTER 36!

**Again, I apologize for the delay! But, hopefully I will have the next chapter up and running relatively quickly!**

Next time, Chapter 37- Colonel Revisited


	38. The Innocent's Spoiled Blood

**Author's Note: I beat The Eternal Night! And then I beat it again as Dark Spyro! In other news, here's the next chapter! I've also decided to change the title of this chapter. I'm also issuing a major violent content warning. This chapter's going to be very, unexpected. And unusual... but it will make more sense when I write this story's sequel!  
**

**Chapter 37- The Innocent's Spoiled Blood**

He felt like an icicle; but he'd been far colder before. Dante's Freezer, the Mountain of Malefor, the entire Magic Crafters world, and many other places had nearly turned Spyro's scales blue. But the purple dragon couldn't help but shiver at this. This book said he was going to die… and soon. And something about a blind man. There are plenty of blind men in the universe; how the hell would one dragon be able to pick out one blind man in thousands? "Spyro, you don't actually _believe_ this stuff, do you?" He wanted to open his mouth, he wanted to yell "NO" at the top of his lungs, so every creature in the heavens could hear him; but he couldn't. "Spyro? Spyro? Hey, answer me! Spyro!" Cynder was not the most patient dragon he'd met; sure, she wasn't Flame-impatient but simple things still irked her.

"Yes… I mean no…! I mean… I don't know!" He finally blurted out. Cynder was taken aback by the rude tone in his voice. She turned away and walked up to the next door. Spyro struggled to get his feet to turn and walk after her; he felt a greater sadness with every step. Was he really going to die? Was fate really going to be cruel to him? Was he going to be one of the unlucky ones? That don't make it out of their childhood? It just didn't seem fair to him. And yet, he trudged on. _If I am going to die, I have to make the world better for everyone else_. One thing was set in his mind; he had to die with dignity. Ignitus said he was destined to leave his stamp on this era. Well, he certainly did that in his first life, but could he do it again?

"SPYRO…!" It pounded through his head, as if someone scratched a chalkboard. But he finally picked his head up to see another nightmare Dingo; and Cynder pinned to the ground. The Dingo bites into her side, and she cries out. Smoke bellows out his nostrils, he charges forward and unknowingly comet dashes into the Dingo, destroying it. Three more suddenly appear. One of them howls and charges forward, but Spyro slices it in half with his sword. Cynder herself makes her katana appear out of nowhere, and spins it around destroying the second dingo. Spyro had just jumped out of the way of the third dingo; he was still being distracted by these terrible thoughts. Was he to spend his remaining days battling hoards of enemies? Was the Omega Dragon trying to wear him down psychologically? Make him easier to kill? Was it all an act…? He dodged the Dingo and slammed it with Ryu-jin. He had to snap out of it; he can't think like this! He had to man up a little. He was sure Cynder would give every last bit of her strength… she did it to help him with the Dark Master, and she hasn't given up on him ever. Suddenly, a blue aura appeared in the middle of the arena. A giant, armored, horned, phantom-like beast appeared in the center of the arena. Its rider was also well armored, with a giant lance pointing at the two; Buffalo Knights; another annoying foe from his past.

The buffalo reared back and charged forward, slamming into Spyro who spun into the wall. Damn, that still hurt, even after he'd been hit by the same type of attack some many times. He got up and used his electric spin, knocking the Buffalo Knight into the air allowing Cynder to melee it, until it fell to the ground. Spyro then meleed it while it was dizzy. The buffalo quickly straightened itself out and tried to stab Spyro with its lance, but he dodged out of the way. He used his earth pound move, knocking the buffalo in the air again. Cynder meleed it and it melted into the ground. The two turned and climbed up the large, carpeted staircase separating the two sides of the room. At the top, they found a door with Severus's logo on it again.

* * *

CONCURRENT SKIES II, DELTA LEVEL, 1530 HOURS (40.5 hours to go)

Another arena; surrounded by steaming molten lava. The two dragons glided down into it; ready to face whatever Severus was throwing at them. Cynder assumed a fighting stance, facing the shadows enveloping the door opposite them. It didn't take long before a golden, mechanical eyeball floated in front of them. It looked all too similar to Yahweh; but it wasn't. Suddenly, a soothing, female computer voice rang out. "Targets sited. Prepare to be terminated by the Antimatter." The Antimatter? There was no time to think about the bizarre creature's name. Some sort of strange, purple, membrane enveloped Antimatter. It began sliding around the arena, trying to ram the two dragons. It then quickly stops and its eye changes colors to red. It then spits out five different jets of flames, which it begins spinning around attempting to burn Spyro and Cynder. They fly into the air and dodge the attacks with ease. Antimatter's eye changes colors to purple. A small, but fast laser sweeps through them, knocking them out of the air. The ceiling is then lit ablaze with purple flames.

Spyro tries to attack Antimatter, but the membrane around it electrocutes Spyro violently. The pain seared through him; he realized that he wasn't sure how much more of this he'd be able to take. He was tired, he was sore, and he hadn't eaten in over two days. Spyro just lay there, unable to move. Too deep in thought, too tired… to young. He hadn't even reached adolescence yet, he was still a hatchling, and already his very will was being pushed further than it could go. He moaned; he couldn't help it, he felt like such an action was building up inside of him with each enemy that laid a hit on him. Cynder flew past him, dodging rifle blasts similar to that from Shadow's rifle. "Get up! Spyro, what are you doing?" She yelled.

"I-I-I can't… I need…" His sentence finished with a loud snoring sound. He's sleeping? Now of all possible times? For a moment, Cynder felt like punching something, anything. Unfortunately, that thing was floating in front of her. She unleashed a stream of steady electric breath, and the membrane began to shrink, until there was nothing left. Cynder rushed at Antimatter and slammed it with her tail, then she delivered a powerful blow with the blades on the tip of her wings, then issued a powerful Dragon Punch (aka a flaming uppercut).

"That… that felt good… I needed that." She growled, as another membrane encased Antimatter. Its eye color changed to yellow, and it began shooting thunderbolts at Cynder. She quickly flew over to Spyro and yanked him in the air, tossing him up near the door; Spyro was still snoring, and rather loudly. She thought of tossing him into the molten pit below, but she quickly shuddered at such a thought. She wouldn't think thoughts like that; those were the kind of thoughts the Dark Master. Antimatter's eye color changed to purple and it began shooting blasts of Convexity Breath at Cynder. One of the shots hit her, and she screamed in pain; a pain all too familiar to her. Suddenly, she felt a great power coursing through her veins. She flew straight at Antimatter, the Convexity Breath seeming to bounce off of her, and Antimatter's membrane was blown apart. Suddenly, she began an inhumane slaughtering of Antimatter. Her entire body was spinning around so incredibly fast; it was beginning to make her dizzy. Slam after slam, hardly a second could even pass between each attack. Then, she slammed her tail into it with such excessive force, Antimatter exploded. She glided down to the ground, panting from the force. She remembered… or had a glimpse of such an attack. Spyro had used it on Gaul… "Lord of Darkness" she called the attack. All creatures were helpless to its power. She felt ashamed; that attack was a dark and evil one. She flew up to the platform where Spyro was fast asleep.

"Get up…!" She hissed, an unpleasant tone oozing out of her mouth. Nothing… Spyro was in a pretty deep sleep. "GET UP!" She roared and slammed him with wings. A yelp was heard and the purple dragon's eyes snapped open. He saw a very angry Cynder.

"Cynder… why… did you attack me?" Spyro groans, a startled expression fixed on his face. She turned away from him.

"Oh… no reason… just to tell you that I beat that hunk of metal. But you feel like staying in dream land? Oh, that's find and dandy! You just sleep there while I go on to Severus and get myself killed! WHAT IN THE ANCESTOR'S NAMES ARE YOU THINKING?!" She wanted to punch him again; it was as if Antimatter's attack was beginning to form an oh-so-familiar malice that was about to crush down on the nearest living thing. Cynder screamed in pain and flew through the door into the next room.

* * *

"_So… this is what became of this place…" We see a destroyed, cave-like interior. The ground is littered with boulders, broken chains, and broken statues. We can make out a part of rubble; a dragon's head. "They didn't lie when they said that wretched dragon destroyed this place." We turn and see a miniscule flash of purple light. "It is only a matter of time before this place is standing on its own again." Suddenly, a green light appears next to a cloaked figure. He stares inside and sees a black dragon, with a purple aura swirling around her, unleashing a frenzied all-out attack on a swarm of nightmares. "Hmmm…? That's strange… she's displaying… a thirst… for destruction." The cloaked head turns and faces the small purple light, which has grown a few inches. "Does my work here have anything to do with this?" The figure shakes its head. "Bah! I have no time for this! They are half way through Severus's fortress. The time is almost at hand…" The cloaked figure disappears in a flash of light._

* * *

Cynder was running down the hall, stopping to slice a Buffalo Knight in half with a mighty swipe of her bladed tail. Farther back, Spyro is running forward; he arrives in the room and stares in shock. The walls and floor were littered with craters, and the room's tapestry was burning. Pieces of armor were scattered across the floor in burning piles. Spyro couldn't keep running, but something was happening to Cynder. He proceeded through the next hallway, and found it in the same state as the last one. 

Further ahead. Cynder tore the head off an Attack Dog and then rose into the air. A fire fury rushed out, leaving the room in the same battered condition as the previous two. Suddenly, she was pinned down by a familiar purple dragon. "What are you doing? Cynder, this isn't like you!" But the black dragon just hissed at Spyro and then stabbed him through the chest with her tail. She knocks him off and runs up the stairs. Spyro's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed on the ground, panting. All the wounds he'd accumulated, and this new, fresh one, were too much. He couldn't stop her… he was too weak… He lay there, panting; struggling to pass into the void. His eyes began closing.

He had failed.

* * *

LEVEL EPSILON, 1400 HOURS (40 hours to go)

"Alright… I know you're in here… show yourself, coward!" Cynder hissed. The purple aura around her body had gotten larger. She was in a circular room. The walls and floor looked like computer screens. Suddenly, a beam of energy bolted into her, and she growled in pain. The beam hit the floor, and formed into Colonel. "Bah! Stand aside, weakling! Don't make me hurt you!"

"What are you doing, you crazed dragon? If you keep this up, the entire fortress will explode!" Colonel yelled. Cynder just laughed. It was a high-pitched laugh; a laugh of insanity. "You're… you're going crazy! Crazy! It is against my honor to fight one who is not right in the mind! Please, stop it!" Cynder's laugh got louder.

"Why should I? If I burn this fortress to the ground, it's all done! Severus's plans are finished! FINISHED!" Colonel stared at her in shock.

"But… but you're friends! They are _here_! What would become of them?" Cynder continued laughing; Colonel was frightened by the dragon's ferocious and strange behavior.

"So a little blood is spilled! Bah! They are all worthless creatures anyway! None of them will ever be as powerful as me!" She turned her head and faced Colonel; her eyes were now a twisted red and purple color. Her eyes looked like they'd been colored with poison. "What's the matter, Colonel… why aren't you stopping me? You work for Severus, no?" She shot a blast of Convexity Breath at him, but he quickly sidestepped.

"You… have attacked me… when I've clearly shown I shan't be fighting! That is most dishonorable!" He points his saber at her. "Prepare for the great beyond… I shall vanquish the demon inside you!" With that a bolt of blue lightning struck his saber and he shot out vertical walls of electricity. Cynder floated harmlessly through the attacks and grabbed Colonel by the neck.

"WEAKLING! Any last words before your armor is a pile of scrap metal?" Colonel stared in shock. Cynder stabbed him with her bladed tail. He began flashing white. "Goodbye, Colonel. They'll always say you died a coward!" She summoned swarms of purple energy in her fists. She shot out blasts of purple lightning, and Colonel turned to stone. She slammed the stone and it shattered. She turned and stared at a small camera facing her. "I know you can hear me, whelp! So I suggest all of you prisoners enjoy your last few minutes of life!"

* * *

MEANWHILE…

"What. The. HELL!" Epsilon yelled as he slammed his fists against the bars. Surely, he didn't believe this. Cynder had gone crazy… and she was willing to kill all of them to destroy this fortress. And worse… no Spyro.

"Guys… where's Spyro… what happened to him?" Ember cried out; she was assuming the worst had happened: again. Tears began to form in her eyes, when an orange arm wraps itself around her.

"Shhh… don't cry, Ember. Please… I'm sure Spyro's just stuck in another room." Flame exclaimed, trying to comfort her. Suddenly, a deranged laugh was heard: Zane.

"This… this is what the _thing_ deserves! Ha… ha… I always knew she was too stubborn to be a good dragon… ha… ha…" He was coughing violently as he spoke; Cynder attack on him was clearly taking its toll. Ember hissed at her.

"Cynder would never do something like this! NEVER!" She cried. Seeing this, Flame turned her away from Zane.

"Don't listen to him… Cynder will be fine… I know it." He hugged her tightly. She sniffled a little, and then smiled slightly.

* * *

_I can't… g-g-give up…_ The thoughts echoed through the battered purple dragon as he forcibly dragged his beaten body up the staircase, exhaustion overwhelming him. But the pain was not as great as the panic that was consuming his thoughts. He'd seen Cynder do something like this before. It had happened when the Dark Master was attacking Avalar. Cynder went bezerk and tore through his armies; stopping the attack with overwhelming amounts of power that frightened Spyro. He assumed that something related to the Dark Master was happening. But what? The Dark Master was dead, the Well of Souls destroyed. It all didn't make sense to him. Unless Severus had finally broken through to her mind and was beginning to take control. But that didn't make any sense either… because Cynder was destroying the fortress. 

He slipped on a puddle of red, formed by the fresh blade wound Cynder had made. He moaned in pain. This entire fortress was slowly beginning to wear him down, both physically and emotionally. He didn't care about the hopes of the mortal realms anymore. He didn't care that his friends were locked up… and he didn't care that Cynder was going insane, for reasons unknown. The only thought that burned in him now was the thought of a gigantic, monstrous dragon looming over his cold, unmoving body; an evil grin was fixed on its face. And yet, he dragged on, moaning as he saw he'd only made it about a fifth of the way up.

Cynder was just about to proceed through the door, continuing her slaughtering of the Dark Lord's troops, when a voice calls out. "Think of what you are doing! Think of innocent lives that will be lost! You're making a mistake!" Cynder turned around; there was no one in the room. The purple aura around her body grew again; it was almost twice as big as her now.

"Show yourself! I'm not afraid!" She roared out in disgust.

"You really don't realize…? Your rampage… your little 'plan'… all useless! All is not as it seems." A tall figure stepped out of the shadows. It appeared to be a robot, garbed purple and green armor. He had a large purple gun bolted to the back of his armor. Cynder hunched herself low to the ground; she was ready to unleash another onslaught of vicious attacks.

"I don't care _what_ you are… you have ten seconds before you're a pile of ashes! 10…" Smoke billowed out of her nostrils. The figure shuffled closer to Cynder, she snapped at it like a chained dog. "9…!" She hissed.

"I see you don't want to exchange pleasantries? That's not how I do things. You're Cynder… and I can tell that something of great trouble is happening, if you are going nuts like this…"

"…8!"

"…I am Craft, skilled in the art of stealth…"

"…7! 6!" Craft slowly took a step back, taking a deep breath.

"…expert weapon-crafter. I go where the winds of fate blow me… and now, that is here. I only want to help you. Help chase the pain out of your mind…"

"...SHUT UP! There's no pain! I'm already sick of you!" She lunges at Craft and delivers a powerful dragon punch, the black flames engulfing Craft. Cynder landed, and her eyes widened in shock. Craft stood there, clearly unharmed.

"It is disrespectful to attack the foe while he is introducing himself." Craft widens his stance. "You seem to want pain brought upon you… and I'm the person that can provide such pain. I hope you like being a sprawled, bloody mess… because such things are my masterpieces. I am an artist of war… you, my canvas. And this…" He pulls his giant weapon out in front of him, "…my brush. Shall I begin to paint the scars of defeat on your helpless body?" Cynder hissed at Craft and lunged at him. Craft calmly sidestepped the attack and jumped back to where Cynder had been previously standing. "Very well… the brush has been dipped in the water; the first strokes are ready to be made." With a quick shift of his feet, Craft began charging forward. The dragoness gasped at his incredible speed. She had no escape; a knife suddenly popped out the end of his gun and impaled the screaming dragoness. Cynder was slammed against the wall and Craft jumped back, the knife going back inside the weapon. Craft kneeled on the ground and three small, flashing orbs flew out in arced patterns at Cynder. She laughs and dodges them with ease. She turns to face Craft and he gets to his feet. The area behind her suddenly explodes, knocking her to the floor. Craft points his gun upwards, and a single, long missile flies out. Cynder quickly gets to her feet and destroys the missile with a blast of fire.

"That… that hurt, you… you…" She was tempted to say something very rude, but was quickly interrupted as Craft charged forward again. She was ready this time, and dodged his attempt at stabbing her again. She responded by using Lord of Darkness. Craft seemed slightly shaken, but not really affected by the attack. He took a couple of dizzy steps backwards, giving Cynder time to unload a stream of Convexity Breath on him. He eventually kneels on the ground, and three more flashing orbs fly out. Cynder's Convexity Breath destroys them almost immediately, and Craft takes another couple of steps backwards. "HA! Is that all you got, Craft?" Craft took another deep breath.

"Alas… the brush ran dry… so we must quench its thirst for liquid, and continue our beautiful strokes." He responded as he pulled his gun up to shoulder level. A small read beam appeared on Cynder's side. She stared at it in confusion, but a giant, continuous stream of blue energy suddenly ripples out from Craft's gun, slamming her into another wall. She roars in frustration as she beats her bloody wings, getting back in the air. She fires a Convexity Wave, the breath Spyro had used when on her when she was still under the Dark Master's control. Craft coolly slid to one side, dodging it, and fired another long missile. She quickly flies around, frantically trying to dodge the missile, but it slams into her and she spirals to the ground. She gets to her feet yet again, tears of anger and fury streaming down her face. She charges at Craft and proceeds to use Lord of Darkness and Convexity Breath on him like it was the last thing she was ever going to do.

"DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!!!" She sobbed as the pace of her attack quickened, leaving no opening for Craft to attack. So instead, he dodged. She didn't even see it; one minute he was there, the next, he moved. She roared; a child having a temper tantrum and raced after him. But he did it again. He was dodging, but she couldn't even see it. He then raced after her, the knife extending from his gun again. He stabbed her through her left wing and she cried in terrible pain. The fine membrane was easily torn and her wing was blotted with red as Craft retracted the knife and Cynder spiraled into the ground. He then jumped into the air and fired a stream of blue energy downward. He began rushing at Cynder, who rolled to the side to dodge the attack. But Craft saw this coming and quickly doubled-back. She had no chance to escape. She was quickly consumed by the stream of energy and she unleashed an earth-splitting roar. The energy began to shred sections of scales off her body, like fine daggers. She dug her claws in the ground, determined not to let Craft win. And then, she began walking forward. Despite all the pain she was feeling, she pushed at the energy with a look of pure hate that could easily intimidate any of her friends; Epsilon included.

She leaped at Craft and knocked him to the ground. She began wildly unleashing blindingly fast melee attacks on him. One second, a tail slams, next, a wing swipe, after, a blast of Convexity Breath. The sheer malice in her mind had come crashing down at last, and she was prepared to tear this robot to pieces if it meant satisfying the destructive force possessing her fragile mind. From their prison, the allies watched in silence as the dragon they'd called their friend slowly rose into the air. But Craft smiled. "The artwork is not complete, until the final, most beautiful stroke is made." He leaps toward Cynder, who is already too far into charging up her fury attack to dodge. He unleashes another energy stream, plowing her into the ground. Suddenly, eight of the long missiles line up in a "V" formation around the energy beam. They fire downward, exploding into the ground with excessive force that not even Cynder had displayed during that fight. But it wasn't over yet. Two more rounds of missiles flew out, and then the energy beam tripled in size and then exploded out… like a fury attack. Cynder was blasted toward the door.

* * *

_I can see it… the door… salvation…_ The purple dragon felt hope surging through his aching limps as he pulled himself in front of the door. He had made it. Suddenly, the room began rumbling. He heard a blood curdling scream was heard. The door exploded backing, colliding with the beaten dragon and knocking him all the way down. A wave of energy rushed out and Cynder went flying through the door, slamming into the wall as the energy tore her underbelly, legs and wings. A fine purple mist evaporated from her and she fell to the floor; air was trying to find its way to her, but she wasn't having an easy time. Craft jumped out of the room and landed next to the two dragons. 

"Ah… my masterpiece. It is the most beautiful piece of artwork I have ever created. They should hand it in a museum. He pulled out a mirror, and the bloody dragoness lifted her aching head. She saw not a dragon… but a mess. A terrifying, ghastly mess. What had she done? One minute, she was happily with Spyro, the next, she was having flashbacks of her terrifying life served under the Dark Master. The thoughts caused her to explode with fury… go bezerk… she was willing to kill all of her friends… even Spyro, to destroy this recreation of the dark, dank fortress she'd spent nearly all of her deprived childhood in.

"Well…" She coughed, "finish me. I don't deserve to live." She coughed up a little blood, and looked at the equally battered purple dragon lying in an unconscious heap next to her. Craft smirked.

"The lesson has been learnt… the evil, expelled… my work is finished. May the winds of fate intertwine our destinies again, at a later date." He smiles and tosses out a glowing white orb, and then vanishes. Cynder extends a shaking arm forward and touches the white orb. A brilliant white light fills the room, and shines down on her and Spyro. She sees her body heal itself, as does Spyro's. Their shimmering scales gleam in the light as the purple dragon comes to, his mind filled with the events that had transpired; of Cynder fighting Craft. Was this his work? Who exactly was he? Where did he come from? Cynder grabbed Spyro's paw.

"Promise me something…" She said, as her aqua green eyes met his. Spyro stared back, attentive. "…promise me, that you'll always be there… and you'll always help me. And you'll never let the darkness consume me… ever." She was about to choke on her own words, and finally burst into tears. Spyro realized the room they were in was changing. They were being teleported. He stroked Cynder, on the mark on her forehead… with his marked hand. The two marks glowed with gold energy. He knew the final confrontation awaited them.

END CHAPTER 37!

Next time, Chapter 38- Things get REALLY Complicated


	39. The Ultimate Enemey IS

**Author's Note: Hiya, folks! I've once again decided to change the name of the chapter! I merged this chapter and the next one together, to save myself some precious time! There should only be one more chapter after this! Prepare to be shocked by the events of this chapter!**

**Chapter 38- The Ultimate Enemy IS…**

CORE LAB, 2200 HOURS (36 hours to go)

After days of physical and brutal torture; the final confrontation awaited. "Once we step through this door…" Spyro began, "…there's no turning back." He took a deep breath and turned to Cynder. "A-A-Are you ready?" She stared at the door. They had both gone through a hell of a lot to get this far. She knew that, and she wanted to end it. End it so she could go back to the Dragon Realms. End it so she could enjoy summer, which was beginning today. End it so that she could spend time with Spyro, without having to battle hoards of enemies.

"I'm ready… let's do this." She said. Spyro nodded, and pushed the giant doors open. He was taken aback by the look of the room; Severus had not changed it. It was the only part of Gate's Laboratory that was still left. However, all of the tables and computers had been ushered to the side, leaving a large space in the middle; no doubt for fighting. They quickly saw the other allies, caged and perched in a corner of the room. "Spyro… look! Our friends…!" Cynder points to the cage. The allies lift up their heads and spot them.

"SPYRO! Cynder! Help us… please!" Ember called out. Spyro ran over to the cage, but was suddenly rammed by a speeding black blur. He collided with a computer on the opposite wall and destroyed it. Spyro got to his feet, groaning slightly. A familiar black robot floated down from the ceiling. "Oh no!" Ember gasped. Spyro growled and stared back at the robot.

"High Max… how could we forget about you?" He said sarcastically. High Max merely blinked his eyes a few times. "Oh, I get it… the silent treatment, huh? Fine then, allow me to break the ice!" Spyro rose in the air and shot a wave of white fireballs at High Max. High Max quickly creates his two barriers, deflecting the attack. He lowers himself to ground level and rushes at the two dragons. Spyro quickly uses Dragon Time and pushes himself and Cynder out of the way. He unfreezes time and High Max whizzes past them. Cynder manages to attack him through an opening in his two barriers with her Shadow Katana. High Max freezes and Spyro blasts him with a stream of white-hot fire.

"Shock…" High Max says as he crashes into the ground, flashing white. He rises back in the air and floats into the middle of the room. "With this move…" He says as he cups his hands together. Several targeting icons suddenly appear on the floor and begin spinning around in random directions. High Max thrusts his hands apart and streams of black energy fly up from the targeting icons. Spyro and Cynder quickly fly into the air, dodging the attack. High Max floats over to the side of the room that the allies are caged in. He cups his hands together and fires four small energy balls at the two dragons. They quickly disperse, flying in opposite directions. High Max quickly puts his barriers up and dashes across to the other side of the room. He quickly doubles back and heads towards Spyro, who freezes time again allowing him to dodge High Max and destroy his two barrier. He then uses a crescent-spinning jump attack with Ryu-jin, and High Max crashes into the ground. He rises into the air and floats back to one side of the room. He cups his hands together again. A small bit of energy begins to form in them.

He releases the tiny energy ball, and it massively grows in size and rushes at Cynder. The energy ball is too fast and runs over her; just like the attack did to Spyro when High Max had dragon-napped him. Angered by this, Spyro punches the ground with his fists. Purple energy waves begin flying out, damaging High Max yet again. "Shock…" High Max floats over to the center of the arena. "With this move…" He says as he cups his hands together again. A giant energy ball forms over him and then flies at Cynder, who calmly sidesteps the attack. But another giant energy ball instantly reappears over High Max, and flies at Spyro. High Max proceeds to rapid fire giant energy balls. Spyro and Cynder weave their way through the attack, until Cynder lights her katana ablaze with black flames and delivers a powerful uppercut with it. High Max cups his hands together again. A small bit of energy begins to form in them.

_This is my chance!_ Cynder thought. She rushes in front of the allies' cage and faces High Max. "HEY! Tall, black and ugly! You're so slow, you couldn't hit Gaul with one of them energy blasts!" High Max turns his attention from Spyro to Cynder. He releases the energy and it forms into a massive energy ball. Cynder quickly jumps to the side, leaving the allies exposed.

"SON OF A…!" Shadow yells as the energy ball collides with the cage and explodes, sending fragments of metal everywhere. Spyro gets in front of Cynder and shields her from the metal by wrapping his wings around her. High Max stares at this.

"Failure…" He says as an orange blur rushes out from the cage and zaps him with electricity.

"Hey, Freakazoid… tell Severus his little 'plan' is ruined!" Flame taunts as he delivers a powerful electric spin attack to High Max, who begins flashing white again.

"You will… never defeat… Severus. I shall wait to battle you in the great beyond…" Those would be the last words the emotionless black robot would utter to this group. He is encased by several mini-explosions and disappears. The allies erupted into a cheer and ran over to Spyro and Cynder. The first to meet them was Bowser, who proceeded to strangle the black dragon, Homer Simpson-style.

"WHY I OUGHTA! You were gonna blow up _my_ castle! And more importantly, _me!_" He roared, shaking Cynder back and forth like a rag doll.

"(cough) It's nice (gack) to see you (choke) again too, Bowser!" Cynder replies, as Shadow blasts Bowser with a rifle shot, causing him to release his grip on the black dragoness. Cynder got to her feet and turn to Flame and Ember. "I… I swear… I had no idea what was going through my head! You have to listen to me! Something just made me think of the Dark Master, and it made me _really_ angry!" She pleaded to her friends. Spyro put a paw on her shoulder.

"It's okay, Cynder… I understand. We all do…" Spyro said. Bowser scratched his head.

"Not me…" He said. The other allies (except Epsilon) fell down, anime-style at the overgrown turtle's comment. Spyro and Cynder couldn't help but laugh.

"Still the same old Bowser!" Spyro exclaimed. Suddenly, a shadow ball exploded in the center of their group. They all jumped back, looking around the room.

"What a touching reunion!" An angry voice called out. A purple box appeared in front of them, followed by Severus. He glared at them. "You punks think it's over? You think that without your measly energy to sacrifice I've lost? Ah ha ha ha ha!" Severus smiled. "It's far from over! In fact, it'll all be over in a few short minutes! I LIED! Ragnarok has been rebuilt… it's been fine the entire time! It's heading up to the Final Weapon as I speak! What do you have to say to that, whelps?" The allies all stared at Severus as if they'd seen a ghost. "Ah ha ha! Nothing to say to that? Pity… I guess you don't believe in final words. It is time for you all to die! You've been nothing but thorns in my sides!" Severus rose higher in the air and snapped his fingers. The area where they were standing in exploded, knocking them in different directions. "Are you ready? This battle shall be a quick slaughter… and your last!" Severus teleported away.

"Now what do we do?" Flame asked when a shadow ball suddenly struck him in the back, knocking him into Pikachu. "What the… sorry Pika!" Luigi suddenly ran over to the spot where the shadow ball originated from and crouched down really low to the ground. Severus suddenly teleported right above him, and he super jumped up, knocking into Severus. He quickly teleported away. Purple targeting icons suddenly appeared on the allies and they began running around, trying to shake the icons off. Suddenly, purple missiles appeared in the air and flew at them. Spyro slowed down time, and destroyed them all with a comet dash. Severus reappeared and waved his hand around. Dark matter cubes began forming in both the air and the ground, trying to trap the allies. Bowser quickly ducks in his shell and spins around really fast. Pikachu electrifies him, turning him into an electric top and he spins into Severus, paralyzing him. Ember proceeds to use her ice tail move on Severus, while Shadow and Epsilon use Chaos Blast on Severus. He quickly teleports away. Suddenly, three different Severus clones appear and wave their hands around. Purple and black lasers, similar to ones used by Gate against them, begin raining down on the allies. They all disperse and run around the room, Luigi running in a very anime-like fashion, until he crashes into White Mage and the two bowl into one of Severus clones, destroying it. The remaining two clones begin firing shadow balls at them. Cynder uses her blade to slice through a few of the shadow balls, while Luigi whacks one of them back at the Severus clones, and they both vanish. The real Severus appears above Shadow and creates a purple box around him.

"Let me out of here!" Shadow growls as Severus snaps his fingers. The box explodes, sending Shadow crashing into Zero. The two roll into the wall. Zero gets up from the attack and counters Severus by using his Rekkoha ability. The attack causes energy balls to rain down from the sky, damaging Severus. Peach takes the opportunity to whack Severus with a golf club, and he is sprawled on the floor.

"Grr! I shall not be made a fool of once again!" Severus yells as he raises his arms in the air. Purple energy bolts, black and purple laser, and dark matter cubes begin to rain down from the sky. Dragoon quickly dodges a box but is hit by a laser and is catapulted into Ember. The two roll into a dark matter cube and are flattened by it. Luigi, who just dodged an energy bolt, tosses Pikachu at Severus, and he uses Volt Tackle, stopping Severus attack and causing him to crash into the ground. Severus begins flashing white. "B… but how?! I am supposed to be the most powerful dark magician there is! This can't be!" Spyro's smirking purple face appears in Severus's field of view.

"Face it, Severus… you're old news! You're an embarrassment to all villains! Since your first evil plot, trying to take over the dragon realms. Well, Azeroth stopped you, and trapped you in that Master Gem. Then, my father foolishly freed you, and you froze my egg in an effort to stop me from hatching. Well, I hatched, and when you tried to have Cynder kill me, she failed and I returned her to normal. You thought placing a dark hold over her would lock her powers forever, well; just look at her paw if you still think you can control her. Then you try to use Gaul to free the Dark Master… well that failed too! And then Cynder and I destroyed the Dark Master! You thought you could then freeze Cynder… but she's standing her now… as am I. Face it, Severus, you're a disgrace! You just a bunch of big talk, coming from the villain who gets smacked around again and again!" Spyro taunted, rubbing salt in the villain's wound.

"Ah… Ah… Ah ha ha ha! Fools… it is… only a matter of minutes… before I have won… Ragnarok is on the Final Weapon… and I have… one last robot there… who will finish the job! Ah… Ah ha ha ha!" And Severus suddenly vanished; not by his normal means of teleporting. He was just… gone. Was he dead? None could say. Suddenly, Ember spoke up.

"Wake up, people! We have to get to that Final Weapon, NOW! Come one guys, who's with me?!" The other allies nod their head. And they all put their hands in the center of their little circle.

"Alright… we've gotta beat back that last robot and then we're done here!" White Mage says, triumphantly.

"This is gonna be fun! All of us against one of them!" Pikachu happily squeaks.

"I think I know who that last robot might be… but I'm not quite sure." Zero says. Dragoon nods.

"Let's get out there… and do some damage, slicks!" Doopliss yells. They all raise their arms in the air. The six Chaos Emeralds that they have begins swirling around them, and they disappear in a flash of light. The last thing we see is a cloaked figure strolling through the room.

"Yes… defeat them… stop the Final Weapon… and then, the world shall be mine!" The figure begins laughing.

* * *

FINAL WEAPON ENIGMA, 0400 HOURS

They appear in a large, hallway. The thick metal wall to their left is littered with wires and flashing numbers and computer screens. To their right, a glass wall looking out towards the earth. And they are standing on a glass floor. Below them, is a giant needle-like structure. No one even needed to stare at it for another second to know it was the Nightmare Ray. And if they didn't hurry, that ray would be glowing with energy soon. "Alright… I have the security device that Gate and Dr. Lelenthal made." Spyro announced, pulling out Bob. "Epsilon, you're arguable the smartest in the group. You should handle the device." He turns to White Mage. "You're good at defense magic, White Mage. You should guard Epsilon, make sure no stray attacks from whatever battle we'll be fighting hit Epsilon or Bob, got it?" White Mage saluted Spyro, like he was some sort of commander or something. "The rest of us will just be fighting whatever force Severus left to occupy this ship! Ready…"

"…BREAK!" They all yelled like a football team and charged forward, brandishing weapons from Luigi's hammer, to Zero's saber, to Cynder's katana. They charges up a large ramp, which quickly double back and goes the other way. Bowser, smartening up, is spinning around in his shell as oppose to walking. White Mage is riding Epsilon like he was a horse. At the top of the long, spiraling ram, lays a golden Conduit. Spyro quickly charges forward and blows it apart with an earth bomb. The group charge through the door, into another hallway like room. Two giant bulldozer mechaniloids charge at the allies, but Zero quickly uses the Sentsuizan ability, performing a slanting dash attack, and destroys the two mechaniloids. The allies charge up another spiraling ramp, until they come to a door with Severus's logo on it.

"This is it!" Luigi says, clutching his hammer in excitement. Bowser busts the door down and the allies jump inside.

* * *

FINAL WEAPON CONTROL ROOM

They are in a giant glass room, the panoramic glass windows allow the allies to see into the depths of space, while the glass floor has them looking at the Nightmare Ray. They notice a multi-colored sword floating at the top of the Nightmare Ray. "That must be Ragnarok!" Ember yelled. Epsilon quickly spots a small computer on one side of the room and charges forward to it, White Mage tailing him. A small USB cable appears out of Bob and he attaches it to the computer's hard drive. Suddenly, thousands of letters, numbers and symbols begin swirling around on Bob's screen. Every second, a letter is disintegrated, and appears on the computer's screen which reads "INPUT OVERRIDE CODE". Suddenly, White Mage quickly puts up a bubble shield, negating a purple laser beam. The electronic doors on the other end of the room slide open. And a sleek robot walks in. Its helmet is blue, and almost resembles a strange hairstyle. Zero quickly recognizes the robot.

"Lumine… so you're that last robot. I _thought_ it was you…" Zero proclaims. Lumine chuckles.

"Surprising that you made it this far… no matter… you shall all be no more… quite soon." Lumine rises into the air, a blue aura surrounding him. Seven orbs also appear around him, each one a different color. He begins flying around the room. Shadow pulls out his rifle and fires a dead-on blast at Lumine. The attack harmlessly bounces off of him, much to the allies shock. "Hmph… my turn…" Lumine says as he absorbs one of the orbs. He raises both his hands, and dark matter cubes begin raining down from the sky. The allies quickly jump around, dodging them. Zero manages to slash Lumine with his saber and blast him with his Z-Buster. The seven orbs reappear, and another aura forms around Lumine.

He begins flying around the room again, stopping every so often to shoot a blue energy ball or blue laser, which are easily dodged by the allies. Lumine stops in the middle of the arena and absorbs another energy ball. Targeting icons suddenly appear again on all of the allies. Suddenly, missiles appear around Lumine and fly out after the allies. Bowser goes inside his shell, while Flame lights him up with his fire breath. Bowser slams into Lumine, damaging her, while Ember quickly heavily damages her by using ice breath on Lumine, who had caught fire slightly. The seven orbs and aura appear again and Lumine flies around the room again. She absorbs another orb. White Mage throws her mallet at Lumine, who was caught off guard by her attack. Her mallet magically returns to her and Lumine proceeds to transform into a giant fireball and begins bouncing around the arena. Spyro, Cynder and Ember use their ice bombs, freezing Lumine in place, while Luigi whacks Pikachu at Lumine. Pikachu uses his quick attack, speeding up the collision rate and doing more damage to Lumine.

"Impressive… you all fight well." Lumine now absorbs two of the orbs. Dark matter cubes begin to rain down from the sky while missiles fly out at the allies. Peach ducks under her parasol, negating the missile and then uses Peach Bomber on Lumine, slamming him using her waist and causing a small explosion in midair that knocks Lumine into Shadow, who delivers a powerful uppercut. Zero, Spyro, and Cynder take out their blades and all fly at Lumine, spearing him with their weapons. Cynder stops to fire a Convexity Wave at Lumine, knocking him to the floor. Lumine begins flashing white. "I… Impossible! Has… has it been stopped? Is the Nightmare Ray… useless now?!" Lumine explodes and the arena is engulfed in white light. The allies trot over to Epsilon.

"Just a few more seconds…" He says. Suddenly, an explosion sound is heard. They look down and see that Nightmare Ray has now been engulfed in flames. The Final Weapon begins shaking violently, knocking the allies off of their feet.

"What the heck just happened?" Flame yelled.

"I think that 'security override' thing was just a fancy of saying we activated the weapon's self-destruct mode!" Zero yelled back. The allies were all getting bounced around by the tremors occurring on the final weapon. "We have to get out of here… NOW!" Zero yelled.

"But what happens if this explodes? Couldn't the fragments of the ship rain on earth?" White Mage asked. Epsilon shook his head.

"The Final Weapon is too far away from earth. The fragments would burn up in space before they reach the atmosphere!" Suddenly, a bright white light surrounded the allies. "What's going on?!" Epsilon growled. Suddenly, they vanished. Seconds later, the Final Weapon exploded.

* * *

UNKNOWN LOCATION, 0800 HOURS

The allies suddenly reappeared atop a giant arena. To their shock, it was floating high in the air. The arena was constructed entirely of blue, transparent crystal. They looked around. It was daytime, much to their surprise. Suddenly, another bright flash of white blinded them. Severus was suddenly floating there. "YOU! But how?" Flame growled, angrily. Severus surveyed his surroundings, and then laughed.

"FOOL! Do you not remember? I can never die! The only way to destroy me…" Suddenly, a cool, male voice interrupted him.

"…is to destroy the Master Gem." A familiar, red-haired, masked human floated down to face the two sides. Pandora and Prometheus… and Cyber Peacock appeared following him. Peacock had a camera in his hands. "Yes, we know… that is why I've summoned you all here!" He turns to the allies. "Congrats on stopping this old geezer's plans!" He smiles. "But I'm afraid you've _waltzed_ right into my precious trap!"

"Guy! What the hell do you want now?" Spyro growls. "And what's with your stupid flunky's camera?" Peacock frowned; he was insulting his precious technology. Guy laughed.

"At ease, Peacock… if you must know…" The screen suddenly fades to black.

We reappear in the middle of Future City. All of the giant television screens advertising various products suddenly disappear. The thousands of people walking around stare and gasp as Guy suddenly appears in the screens. "…I'm broadcasting these events…" The screen fades to black again.

We reappear in the Dragon Realms. All of the dragons, including Zane and his friends, who were teleported back to the realms by Guy, were watching Guy in the Professor's lab. "…to everyone in the two dimensions… Now… take a look at this cute little purple dragon!" The camera swivels to face Spyro. We fade to black again.

We reappear in a house. A family of Toads from the Mushroom Kingdom is staring at Spyro. "Yes, take a good long look. Because in a few moments… everything is going to change!"

We cut back to the arena. The allies can hear the screams of everyone across the dimensions. "OH MY GOD!" Ember screams and points to the sky. The cheerful blue color is suddenly forming into a blood red color, with black clouds blocking out the sunlight. Flashes of lightning continually light up these black clouds. Severus stares at Guy.

"What are you doing, you stupid, stupid man?!" Severus asks. Pandora shoots an electric stream at him, knocking him to the ground.

"Ignorant fools… the master is about to make a better world… under his rule!" Guy laughs again. His scepter materializes in front of him, and then, and familiar, multi-colored sword.

"RAGNAROK! B-B-But how?!" Flame yells out. Suddenly, a Chaos Emerald also materializes in front of them. Shadow gasps. The other six emeralds suddenly detach themselves from Epsilon, and float over to their seventh comrade. As Ragnarok and the emeralds swirl around him.

"Spyro… Cynder… foolish friends of the dragons… and all of you innocent people who are turning in… I have a story to share with you. These two dragons were born 10,000 years ago, to a dragon known as Vraël. The foolish dragon wanted to impress Vic and Tray, so he ventured into the temple of his father, in search of the Azeroth Crystal! What he found instead, was the Master Dark Gem… which had the imprisoned soul of this pitiful excuse for a villain (he motions to Severus)! Vraël's soul has been trapped in the master gem for many years… and Severus has tried to kill these two! Why? Because he knew that one of them would be his undoing!" Guy laughed. What the heck was this lunatic raving about? "Spyro… why don't you show us what you've been keeping in your pocket!" Guy blasts Spyro with a powerful red light from his scepter. Spyro grits his teeth, trying to fight Guy. But he suddenly lets out a roar, the roar gets deeper, and he takes a step forward. The color of his eyes, horns, and underbelly slowly begin to morph from gold to red. Cynder gaps.

"I was right! I WAS RIGHT! He wasn't safe! There was someone still controlling him!" Spyro lifted his hand, and a giant swirling crystal formed in his hand. Severus gasped in astonishment.

"THE MASTER GEM! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" An evil grin formed and Spyro slammed the crystal into the ground. It shattered upon impact. Guy floated over and picked up the core of the gem. He slammed it against a diamond-shaped indent in his scepter, and it instantly began to swirl with dark energy. Severus screamed as he was encased by miniature explosions. Suddenly, a ball of white light appeared next to Cynder. The next second, a tall, brooding, black dragon with red horns, eyes and a red underbelly appeared.

"You… you monster!" It growled in a voice that reminded Cynder of Terrador. "Release my son at once!" It lunges at Guy. But Spyro unleashes a blast of black flames that were several times larger than ever before. The dragon skids back to Cynder's side. She stares at Guy in pure horror. The allies begin to hear the panicked screams of the people below.

"Ladies and gentlemen… prepare to meet _the ULTIMATE ENEMY_… well, a recreation of it anyway… prepare to witness the power… of the OMEGA DRAGON!" Guy raises his staff in the air. The seven Chaos Emeralds begin swirling around Spyro. The dragon extends an arm forward and grabs Ragnarok. The entire arena is engulfed in white light.

"SPYRO! SPYROOOOOOOOOOO!" Cynder cries out as the light dies down. Suddenly, a gargantuan, terrifying, metallic dragon looms above them. He is coated in thick, sleek black armor. The spikes on his tail and back are nearly as big as the dragon itself. It's giant, glowing red eyes stare at the allies.

"Now, Spyro… destroy those fools! Show the viewing audience why the must bow down to the power that is GUY!" Spyro lets out a blood curdling roar and slams the allies with his tail, flattening all of them. They all lie there on the ground, moaning in pain. Cynder is the first to her feet. Vraël follows her, and then the other allies. "HA HA HA! You idiots are willing to get yourselves killed over this!" Spyro roars and punches the ground with both his fists. A black energy wave the size of two Gauls put together ripples out and crashes down on the allies like a tsunami. Cynder gets to her feet and tries to blast her brother with black fireballs, but Spyro merely bats them away with his arm. They rain down on a nearby field, lighting it ablaze. The allies once again hear terrified screams from the people watching.

"How the hell can we beat that thing?!" Epsilon growled. It seemed hopeless. There attacks were too small… they couldn't do anything. It was all useless.

"With a little help from some friends!" Came a voice as giant yellow star crashed into Spyro, making him growl and take a step back. Kirby, Meta Knight, King Dedede, Kracko and Waddle Doo appeared. "We'd never let this awful person do this!" Kirby says.

"Yeah! No one gets to rule Popstar but ME, ME, ME!" King Dedede yells, stomping the ground angrily. Guy just laughed.

"Pathetic! Then you shall all die too…"

"SQUEE! A world under your rule would mean there would be nothing for a Squeak like me to steal!" Daroach suddenly appeared next to Kracko. Then, some of Spyro's friends from back home appeared. Even Crash and Coco were there.

"Oy! We've gotten ourselves into a heap of trouble before, but you're all gonna need a leg up to beat this guy, mates!" Crash yells. Guy just laughed.

"Pandora! Prometheus! Get back… We'll deal with theses fools, _personally_!" The two robots nod and vanish. "Let this be… THE FINAL BATTLE!" Spyro's opens up revealing several black missiles. The missiles fire out and spiral around in random directions. The missiles themselves were shooting out dark energy blasts. Crash quickly spins around, deflecting the energy blasts back at a couple of incoming missiles. Cynder slices through another missile with her tail, then quickly ducks under an energy blast fired from Bianca. The energy blast hits Spyro's hand and he growls slightly. Hunter strings his bow and begins launching arrows, which Epsilon, Vraël and Cynder transform into elemental arrows using their breath attacks. Spyro merely puts his giant arm up and swats the dragons out of the sky. He thrusts both his arms in the air. Black thunder bolts begin raining down in the arena. White Mage quickly creates a reflective barrier around herself and Luigi, knocking a few bolts back at Spyro. Peach ducks under her parasol to counter the bolts. Bowser spins around the arena in his shell, trying to distract Spyro.

"HEY, UGLY! YOUR MOM WEARS COMBAT BOOTS!" Bowser shouts. Shadow rolls his eyes.

"Even in the midst of a battle like this, he still manages to do something screwy." He's quickly blasted by a flurry of dark energy balls from Spyro. Spyro thrusts his fingers forward and lasers begin sweeping around the arena, trying to burn the allies. Coco flies in front of Spyro's face in her ship and blasts him with shots from the ships ray gun. She quickly flies out of the way as Ember and Flame try to double-team a comet dash on Spyro. But Spyro uses his own, larger comet dash, knocking them to the ground and ramming several other allies. King Dedede inhales Pikachu and spits him at Spyro. Pikachu uses his Iron Tail move, but barely does so much as a scratch on Spyro as he slams Pikachu to the ground with his two giant fists. As he slams the ground, dark energy waves fly out which the allies jump over. Kirby inhales Luigi's hammer and gets the hammer ability. He dashes up to Spyro and uses a hammer smash on his toe. Spyro quickly lifts his foot up and flattens the pink puffball. Bowser suddenly final slams his foot and he begins hopping around in pain.

Kracko uses spike extend, extending his spikes to as to deflect several dark energy balls from Spyro. Spyro growls and unleashes a steady stream of Convexity breath, knocking Kracko into Dragoon, who dodges him and combines his fire with Vraël's black fire and Epsilon's white fire to burn Spyro's other leg. Spyro instantly flaps his enormous wings and rises into the air. Crash summons his Wumpa Bazooka and blasts Spyro in the face, then quickly uses his slide attack to dodge black lasers that Spyro unleashes on the allies. Luigi and Pikachu team up, using Luigi and Pika missile to slam into Spyro's side, where his armor is weakest. Ember and Cynder use their ice tail attacks on Spyro's right hand, before he grabs them and flattens them into a crater. Spyro raises his two hands. Dark energy begins gathering in them. He thrusts them forward and creates a huge black energy beam. Vraël steps in front of the beam and to Spyro's shock creates a forcefield that is barely blocking the beam. The elder dragon grits his teeth from the enormous effort, but finally manages to stop Spyro's attack. Spyro growls in frustration and unleashes a jet of black flames on Vraël, who growls as he's thoroughly burned by the attack. White Mage casts Curaja on him, then Epsilon casts Magic Restore, restoring White Mage's mana. He quickly pulls out his saber and slashes an incoming dark missile.

"This is very entertaining! I enjoy watching your failure!" Guy taunts as Waddle Doo harmlessly fires a beam from his eye at Spyro. Spyro picks Waddle Doo up and throws him into King Dedede. King Dedede responds by jumping into the air and slamming down on Spyro's foot with his mallet. Sheila then swift kicks the large dragon from behind, while Bentley whacks Spyro's other leg with his giant club. Spyro beats his wings and takes to the air again. He raises his hands and swipes the air with them. Dark energy crescents begin flying at the allies. Blink places a bomb near Spyro. One of the crescents sets of the bomb and Spyro grunts in a tad bit of pain. Cynder attempts to use her earth flail on him, but Spyro responds with another stream on Convexity Breath, knocking her to the ground. Kirby uses his final cutter move on Spyro, uppercutting him with a sword made of energy, then slamming down on him with it. Zero gets under Spyro and uses the Shoenzan ability, performing a heavy fire attack from the ground. Shadow jumps into Spyro and uses Chaos Sphere on him. Spyro responds by using his earth flail move, knocking all of the allies away. Ember screams as she begins to fall over the side of the arena.

Flame quickly jumps and pulls her up. He turns and glares at Spyro, then charges him and attack him with and electric orb. Spyro uses his own electric orb in responds, heavily damaging Flame, who is sprawled on the ground as a result. Peach tries to whack Spyro with. Daroach appears behind Spyro and waves the Dream Wand, shooting electric orbs at Spyro. He waves it around again and a giant, red bomb falls below Spyro. It erupts in a pillar of fire, and Spyro grunts in pain yet again. Sheila kicks Spyro with both of her legs and Agent 9 and Blink begin blasting Spyro with lasers. Bianca, Vraël, Cynder, Epsilon, Flame and Ember are shooting elemental blasts of energy at Spyro. Daroach fires more electric orbs, while Kracko and Pikachu fire thunderbolts at him. Dragoon and Bowser use their fire breath, while Doopliss uses his Leaf Umbrella. Shadow uses his rifle, while White Mage shoots white energy balls at him. Spyro's eyes suddenly open wide and he rises into the air. A purple orb begins swirling around him. Bolts of purple energy rain down from the sky, and waves of dark flames fly out. The Convexity Fury blasts all of the allies back, heavily damaging them. All the while, Guy is laughing. The gasps of the people below are heard as well.

The allies all slam into each other on the other end of the arena. Flame stares at them, his face creased with worry. "What are we going do? I can't keep taking hits like this… and our attacks are barely hurting Spyro!" Epsilon looked at Cynder. Cynder shrugged.

"Yes… _Cynder_… why aren't our attacks heavily damaging him yet?" Epsilon whispers. Cynder looked at him, panic flashing across her face.

"The book said the crystal would only activate itself in the most desperate of times!" Epsilon swore, but his yells were masked by a massive explosion of dark missiles, hurtling the allies into the air, and allowing Spyro to blast them with Convexity Breath. They all exploded out in different directions Spyro charges forward and randomly slams one of the allies down, pinning it to the ground; that ally was Cynder. She looked up into his unrecognizable face. She'd been in this situation before… but now, the circumstances were much higher. What was she going to do? She heard laughing, Guy floated over to the two of them.

"I'm sure this feels like déjà vu for you, Cynder… but this time, I'll make sure Spyro actually _finishes_ the job! Something that fool, Severus didn't have the chance to do! Now… finish her!" Spyro raised his arm for the kill, when a shadow ball struck him in the back; it was from Epsilon. He turned around and glared at the other purple dragon, forgetting about the black dragon he had pinned down. Cynder saw her opening, and squeezed out of Spyro grip, then used earth pound on his chest. "You fool! After her! Get her!" Guy yelled. Spyro nodded and unleashed a stream of dark energy that plowed into Cynder. The attack felt similar to the energy streams that Craft had used against her. She spiraled to the ground and skidded to a halt in front of a waiting Guy. She was quickly pinned down again. Guy shook his head.

"It's a right pity that this had to happen… you were such a good little girl. But your magical energy will make me invincible! So, any last words?" Cynder felt a strange, warm energy flowing through her. Her face creased in anger as she realized that now was the time. She looked at the two villains, tears in her eyes. She slowly closed them

"Yeah… I've got some last words. I'm sorry…" The two stared at her in confusion. "I'm sorry…" Her eyes shot open, now gold. "…FOR EVERYTHING!" Her entire body transformed into a magnificent gold color as she blasted Spyro off of her and rose into the air, a black and red aura swirling around her. She thrusted her arms in the air and bolts of black and red lightning began to strike her body everywhere. As they did, a swirling red and black vortex was created in front of her. It began to drag the enormous purple dragon toward it, growing in size as it did. Finally, Cynder roared and the energy portal erupted, shooting bolts and blasts of red and black energy that spun around the helpless purple dragon and buffeted him with massive amounts of energy. More and more energy blast fired out, and eventually the vortex itself engulfed the dragon. The allies could hear ear splitting screams of pain as shook violently. A blast of lightning struck it. Then a larger one. Then an even large one. And finally one that caused the vortex to erupt into a spinning pillar of swirling black and red energy. The pillar ate away at the dragon's armor and strength. And as it did, more bolts of energy and flashes of lightning struck the pillar. The two screams got louder and louder, the allies covered their ears. The whole earth shook from the force of the attack. And finally, the sound of something shattering was heard. The dark aura was no longer around Guy, though nothing from his staff was damaged.

"NO… this can't be…. NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Guy slammed his fists on the ground as Cynder slowly drifted to the ground, and a normal Spyro collided with the arena. The following victory cheer was so loud, that it made Guy's visor begin to exert steam again. He grabbed his ears and sank to his knees.

We cut to a shot of downtown Mushroom City, where a little boy is jumping up and down. "Mommy, that was the best free movie ever!" He said. His mother nearly fainted at the comment.

Cynder and Vraël walked up to Spyro, battered and battle-worn as he was. He looked at the large black dragon. "D… dad?" He asked, wearily. Vraël nodded. Spyro turned and hugged Cynder tightly. "Thank you… I owe you my life…" He said, kissing her on the snout. Bowser stuck out his tongue.

"Aw cheese… not this stuff again!" Epsilon "friendly" punches Bowser in the arm. "OW!"

"Lighten up, Bowser. It's over… we've won." He smiled and introduced Bowser to King Dedede. The two burly "kings" shook hands. Suddenly, they heard laughing. They shook their heads as they faced Guy, who was now standing again.

"You think you've beaten me? You think this is the end…" He gripped his staff tightly. "Well… I've got news for you wretched, pathetic, brats! This…" He pulled his left hand back, and the gold metal of most of the staff came off. "…IS FAR FROM OVER!" He rushed forward and incredible speeds toward the wide-eyed purple dragon. Cynder quickly turned her head and saw what was happening and without even thinking, dived to the side.

"NOOOOOOOO! I WON'T LOSE HIM AGAIN!" A slicing sound was heard. Everyone froze. A bloody red, bladed tip was inches away from Spyro's chest. An astonished Guy had a black dragon skewered on his scepter. Epsilon's eyes widened.

"The staff… it… it had a hidden katana all along! Guy had a plan B! If you can beat 'em… kill 'em!" The black dragon slid off the blade and collapsed on the ground. Guy put the metal staff covering back over the bloody weapon. Spyro slowly took a step forward. The allies all turned and stared at each other with sad faces. Flame and Ember tried to step forward to comfort their friend, but Epsilon put his arm out. "Don't… you're only going to make things worse." Ember stared at Flame, tears forming in her eyes. Guy stared at this, but he wasn't happy with this murder.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! That wasn't supposed to happen! How did she react to that so fast?! It's impossible! No normal creature has those kinds of reflexes!" He looked up and saw Spyro, whose tears were falling on the wound of Cynder's cold, still body. Then, he saw smoke… GOLD SMOKE… billow up out of the purple dragon's nostrils. He took a nervous step backwards. "C-C-come now… Spyro… it was… just a little… misunderstanding…" Spyro roared, and then his entire body now flashed gold.

"YOU! YOU… MUDERER! She never did anything bad to you… to anyone! She was always willing to help anyone! YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU! YOU!" He continued chanting the word "you" as he rose up into the air, a golden orb surrounding him. He then let out a thundering roar, causing the ground to start shaking again. Smoke and steam began to rise yet again from Guy's visor as he covered his ears.

"Cut it out… you stupid, stupid dragon! STOP IT! AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGG!" Guy was thrusted backwards and sprawled on the ground as golden flames began to surround Cynder's lifeless body.

"Is he…?" Ember began.

"Can he…?" Flame continued.

"No way…" Epsilon finished. Gold energy rippled out everywhere. The sky's black color begin to return to its normal blue color. The burning fields below were extinguished, and the burned plants renewed. Both the dimensions were rumbling as the golden flames around Cynder grew.

"_At long last… after 10,000 years… the Dark Lord is gone… the dimensions, may be united once again."_

And so it happened. Peach's Castle, which had previously only been a couple of miles away from the ocean, was now overlooking the outskirts of Stone Hill, the outmost part of the entire magical realms. The golden flames around Cynder faded, and Guy got to his feet, panting. Everyone gasped as a familiar, black dragon stood up and faced the glowing gold one. It was truly shocking. "I… Impossible… no!" Guy yelled. The gold dragon ran up to the black one and looked at her for what seemed an endless amount of time.

For those who'd known Spyro, the only times he'd ever cried was in pure rage and anger. But this was something entirely different. The allies watched as the golden dragon began sobbing into the shoulder of the black one. She calmly stroked the back of his neck, as if she was its mother. "Shhh… please, Spyro, don't cry. It's okay now… I'm okay… we're all okay." The golden dragon lifted his head, and smiled, before his eyes closed and he fainted. Epsilon ran up to the two of them.

"That spell… Full Life… he needs medical attention… NOW! His life energy is almost entirely depleted!" Cynder's eyes flashed with panic as she through Spyro on her back and charged toward the others, pausing to look back at Guy.

"I… will… have… my… REVENGE!" And he was gone in a flash. She quickly erased the thoughts of Guy from her mind; what mattered now was that Spyro make it out of this situation alive.

END CHAPTER 38!

**Wow, that was my longest chapter… over 7,000 words long! This is it; we're just about at the end! And once that's done, the sequel comes!**

Next time, Chapter 39- Summer's Beginnings


	40. Summer's Beginnings

**Author's Note: This is it… this is the finish… the final chapter… the last one! Now, don't cry people… I know you've all been patiently following along with my 4,000+ word chapters and now the epic parts of the story are over. I know I might've mentioned the possibility of a sequel to this. Well, I've decided to abandon that. I WILL BE WRITING A NEW FANFIC ONCE THIS IS DONE. Read my end-chapter notes for more info! Also, feel free to tell anyone you know on FF about this… and additionally use my Original Characters (you don't have to ask permission, as long as you properly credit me as their creator). Well… enough of my spiel, let's get to the final chapter! **

**Chapter 39- Summer's Beginnings**

Normally, a giant, ominous purple vortex usually meant to a dragon that a portal to the shadow realms had been opened. But in this case, the tiny purple vortex on the horizon was a fate far worse than entering such a portal; the void. It took tremendous will power for a creature to try and avoid beginning the decent into the void. The last moments outside of it seemed like pure terror. But in a flash of light, one would find themselves in heaven or the underworld respectably. But some souls… those truly awful, tainted souls, would be forced to fall down the void for all of eternity. Their souls doomed to rot as the ages wore the creature's body until it was no more. One particular creature, a small dragon, was frozen in the long fall. Truly, this creature had tremendous will power. His eyes were squeezed shut as he watched speeding blurs that were other dead or dying creatures get pulled toward the swirling vortex. He grits his teeth in frustration. After everything that had happened; was he really going to die?

But there was some inner tranquil in Spyro's mind. A single thought that he clung to… as thinking positive thoughts was the best way to try and escape the fall. He knew that Cynder was going to be okay. It never really hit him until just moments ago that he was truly something different. What he'd done was one of the most selfless things anyone… anything could have done. To put one's own life in front of the void to rescue a soul who was already inside it. Everyone always thought about Spyro as different… but they never openly told him about this. But he was finally realizing what made him so different; and this filled him with a warm blanket of happiness. The thing about Spyro was he thought of everyone higher than he thought of himself. It was him who had willingly flown into the very portal to the Dark Master's prison to save Cynder. It _was_ him who saved himself, Sparx, and Cynder from the collapsing Mountain of Malefor. It _was_ him who convinced the elders to give Red a second chance after he vanquished the Sorcerer (even if he ended up joining up with Severus). It _was_ him who leaped up in Ice Cavern, and knocked Flame out of the way of a sharp ice shard, taking the hit himself. And it was him who used nearly every ounce of his power to yank Cynder from the void as if he was fishing… for souls.

As he thought about these, he smiled. Surely, if this was the end, he didn't have any regrets. He gave numerous people reasons to celebrate. He did a lot… but never asked for much in return. Just a simple "thank you" was enough to please him. Generally, those he helped generously gave him items he needed to collect to help the world that was being attacked by some villain. Whether it was Orbs, Relics, Dragon Eggs or Light Gems, people willingly gave them to him. It was as he though this that a white aura began to glow around him, and the view of the void suddenly turned to nothing but black.

"Well… I administered the anesthesia… and patched up his wounds as best as I could." Dr. Lelenthal exclaimed to the group of allies; most of whom, were too busy watching Bowser face off against Doopliss in a heated game of Mario Party.

"No fair! I swung my Wiimote when the dice block showed a 3! Now I just wasted my Slowgo Candy!" Bowser complained.

"Too bad, slick. It's minus three coins for you!" Doopliss responded. Dr. Lelenthal just rolled his eyes. Vraël turned around and spoke to Dr. Lelenthal.

"What about my daughter… is she okay?" He asked. Dr. Lelenthal lifted his head. At least _someone_ cared about the two dragons lying in the infirmary room. Even if that _someone_ was their re-awakened father.

"She was just tired… so I put her to sleep. My guess… she'll be waking up any minute now." Dr. Lelenthal responded.

"Very good, Jon… now, I can take it from here." Said a smooth, cool voice. A familiar black dragon strolled into the room from the kitchen. Dr. Lelenthal said not a word to Nightshade but bowed and motioned to the door. Nightshade nodded and walked in. As he did, a white light encased his body and he transformed into the robot, Tray. He walked over and saw the two dragons, curled up in their respective beds. One was covered in several bandages and had a cast on its tail; which he assumed was somehow broken. The second one was curled up in a tiny black ball, sleeping soundly. Tray turned his attention from Cynder to Spyro and looked at him. He was shivering; whether from the anesthesia or from something else, he did not know. Even a creature with as little emotion as Tray could not help but feel sorry. These two had been through a hell of a lot… what just merely started as a quest to save Spyro and stop Gate had become a quest to stop an ancient evil… and was all along, a quest to defeat Spyro and stop a lunatic assassin.

Tray could not help but wonder what dreams these two dragons were having. He then quickly reminded himself that no creature dreams while under the use of anesthesia. In fact, he hardly considered the state of dream-less sleep sleeping at all; rather a state of unconsciousness. But some had dreams even when they're unconscious… but such a gas clouds the mind; masking one's creativity behind a wall of fog. Suddenly, he heard a soft and gentle yawn. He turned his head and saw a pair of black eyelids fold up, unveiling two aqua green eyes which turned around and met his gaze. "Oh… Tray… I didn't expect you to be here." Cynder said, climbing out of the bed. Tray merely fidgeted with his metal hands while staring at Spyro.

"He's really something else… who would've thought he'd be able to use Full Life to revive the dead… not even the most powerful spell casters I've known could do more than simply wake up the unconscious. Heck, I think if that had been, say, Shadow dead, that spell wouldn't have done anything. It's really something…" He turned to face her. "But you… why didn't you tell me you found your grandfather's crystal? I would've taught you more about Ultima… seeing as you're the keeper of the spell now." Cynder nodded and stared at Spyro, thinking about what he said. "They say," He continued, "that there are few things that can magnify the power of a spell. There's rage… there's borrowing another magician's magical energy… and, of course, a feeling of desire."

"Desire…" Cynder's eyes flashed in the late-morning light. "What do you mean by that?" Tray smirked briefly; it reminded her of how Epsilon behaved.

"Desire… if something means _so much_ to the spell caster… the need to help it will raise the power of its spell." He turns to Spyro again. "There's no other explanation for it… part of the power he generated was from his anger toward Guy… but most of it, over the need to have you standing by his side once again." He smirked again. "Trust me… I know these kinds of things." Cynder formed a weak, but apparent smile.

"It still doesn't seem to make sense. Believe me when I say that Spyro's done some really crazy things to help other people, and…" Tray put a finger to his mouth, silencing her.

"No… the things he's done for others are fairly standard. The things he's done for _you_… are crazy. No normal person would jump in the darkest portal in all the lands, scale one of the deadliest mountains known to magical creatures, or use some magical force for protection from the destruction of said mountain. No normal person would do it… not even for their closest friends or family. If it were a life or death matter…" He sighed, "I've never met any creature who puts others' lives ahead of his own, in life or death situations. But come to think of it… was it not just returning the favor?" Cynder raised an eye in question.

"What do you mean, 'returning the favor'?" She asked, her face creased in confusion. Tray smirked at her question.

"Is it not obvious, young one… you saved him from an untimely death. I myself was startled that you were capable of showing such reflexes…" Now it was Cynder's turn to outsmart Tray.

"Don't you remember… when you told me about how Spyro and I would be together in a different time, under different conditions. You said something important to me… '_All creatures, big and small, must make difficult decisions in life. For you, that first one will be one of sacrifice, or suffering._' Don't you get it? It was either I sacrifice myself to save Spyro, or he'd die… and I would just never be able to live any more without him." Tray stared at her; he didn't smirk this time, but smile.

"And is that not the same reason why Spyro revived you?" Cynder thought for a moment, and suddenly smiled. Tray nodded, "I think… after all this time… it's finally _safe_ for you to openly admit what you've been keeping locked in your heart for all that time." Cynder nodded; there was a feeling of warmth engulfing her. She felt like her spirits had been lifted; if only a tiny bit. Her mind began racing with words; how to tell him? She wasn't sure. She walked out of the room, looking to seek advice from someone else. Tray nodded and turned to the unconscious purple dragon. "Well… that's one down… one to go." He snapped his fingers and the purple dragon's eyes shot open; he was aware of a strange presence in the room. He turned and saw Tray floating in front of him.

"I'm guessing… you're Tray… the other god?" Spyro asked, his voice trembling before his superior. Tray smirked.

"Come now, young Spyro, why so glum and nervous? I'm not going to hurt you… and you certainly don't have to refer to me as a god… for you are one too, no?" He floated back and sat on Cynder's bed. "I'm impressed… I'd never expected that anyone would be able to break one of _my_ spells." Spyro stared at him. "You mean you don't know?" Tray asked, chuckling. Spyro just shrugged. "Your little number there… it did more than save Cynder. It reversed the spell I'd used to separate the mortals and magical creatures into two realms. It is just one realm… as it should be. You should be very proud… you have lifted a great weight off the world's shoulders, defeating Severus." Spyro now frowned.

"Yeah… then why do I feel like I should never leave this room? The only reason Severus is gone is because of Guy. He just used me to get the master gem without touching it… and then made me betray all my friends. The entire world saw me backstab them! How can I live with myself after something like that?"

"Young dragon, what occurred was not your fault at all. It was simply a result of someone having not trained you in the important practice of 'mind barriers'. I'd put mind barriers around when we first met, to prevent Severus from trying to weasel his way into her mind." Spyro was staring at the ground, unable to make eye contact he was so humiliated. Tray looked at this and merely sighed. "Spyro… no one would ever believe that you had the intention to betray everyone and join Guy. I'm sure all of them are smart enough to figure out he obvious put some sort of spell over you."

"Speak for yourself, Tray… you're forgetting guys like Pikachu and Bowser." Spyro mumbled. Tray finally shook his head and stood up.

"Young dragon, I've traveled much too far to merely have an argument with you. I'll leave you with one last thing and that's merely a question. If you think no one's going to forgive you for what Guy did, then why did Cynder jump in front and take Guy's fatal blow? And then, there was the matter of you reviving her. Young dragon, if that were anyone else lying there but her, I guarantee that your spell would not have worked. Just think about that… and quit beating yourself up about this." Tray snapped his fingers and vanished in a flash of light, leaving the purple dragon sitting their, lost in thought… again.

Spyro's mind was racing through a pool of guilt. He couldn't bring himself to walk through that door in front of him. What he'd done was inhumane… and he couldn't bring himself to show his face in front of the other allies. "But you can't stay locked up in here forever…" Spyro said to himself. Spyro turned his head away and spoke again, this time in a much more depressing voice, "Why not? I did something terrible… I deserve to die." Spyro just shook his head; he seemed to be taking on a dual personality. "Think about it Spyro… if you really did deserve to die… why did Cynder save yours?" Spyro turned his head away again, "Because she was being foolish!" The good Spyro shook its head, "I think there's a deeper meaning; one more connected with the reason why you revived her…" The sad Spyro's eyes suddenly lit up. "You mean…?" The good Spyro nodded. "That's exactly what I'm getting at!" Spyro stood up. "Then we should find her… and I should stop talking to myself." The good Spyro laughed. "Yeah… we don't want people thinking you got a concussion or something to add on to this mess." He exclaimed, staring at his wrapped and bandaged body.

Spyro began to walk forward; flinching slightly because his front right and back left paws were bandaged from burns. His walking slowed up in front of the door. _No… I'm not having any second thoughts about this!_ He grabbed the door knob and twisted it, slamming the door open. Several of the others turned their heads, slightly startled by the racket. "Sp-Spyro?" Flame asked, walking towards the bandaged purple dragon.

"No… Gnasty Gnorc. Who do you _think_ it is?" Spyro responded, smirking. Flame ran up and patted his friend on the back.

"Thank god you're okay… you were making us so worried." Ember said, running over and hugging Spyro. He flinches slightly, and she backs off, aware of his injuries. Bowser turns his head slightly.

"Speak for yourself… I _knew_ he'd be okay. It takes more than a few flesh wounds to bring down us mighty reptiles!" Bowser flexes. White Mage just rolls her eyes. Spyro turned his attention back to Flame and Ember.

"Is Cynder still here?" Flame shook his head. "Then do you know where she went?" Flame thought for a moment, and then merely shrugged. Spyro turned to Ember now, "Do you know where she is?"

"She just kind of walked out. She mentioned something about searching for a 'lost home'… or something along those lines. I think she's headed back to the Dragon Realms…" Spyro frowned.

"I have to find her!" Spyro said, charging toward the door. Ember and Flame stopped him. "Stop… this is something for me and me only to do. You guys should stay out of this." Ember shook her head.

"Spyro… you're not rested enough! We're not just going to let you go spend the entire afternoon searching for Cynder!" Spyro sighed.

"I appreciate that you're caring so much about this… but I just _have_ to do this. I can't really explain why, though. I'm sorry… I have to go." Spyro opened the doors and charged out, despite his injuries. Ember turned to Flame.

"We have to follow him! What if he's attacked or something?!" Flame shrugged. "FLAME!" Ember yelled, getting impatient with the orange dragon. Flame finally sighed.

"Okay… okay… but if Spyro gets angry, it was _your_ idea!" They were about to leave, when Peach tapped Ember on the shoulder.

"Are you guys going to come back here? I was thinking a having a little celebration tonight." Ember's eyes widened.

"Oh, ancestors! I was so caught up in all of this, I completely forgot about what we were planning on doing when our adventure came to a close!" She frowned, thinking. Flame merely smiled and patted both of them on the back.

"It's _summer_ now! That means we don't have to worry about school for a few weeks!" Ember's eyes lit up as Flame told her this. "Yeah, we'll come back… once we find the 'odd couple'… we'll come back." He nodded, and he and Ember ran out the door after Spyro.

* * *

ARTISAN VILLAGE, LATER… 

Flying had never been more painful for Spyro before. He collapsed on the outskirts of the village in a field of grass; the effort had him taking really deep breaths. After several minutes, he finally stood up. He looked around, as if he was a stranger to the place and was visiting for the first time. It felt weird to be back here; and after all that time spent among the mortals. All the technology, the different landscapes, the giant cities; Spyro had become quite accustom to them. He felt weird walking as he walked into the village. He did his best to avoid walking through streets he knew would have people on them. He didn't want to attract any attention to himself. He quietly slipped through the white fence that led to Nestor's home.

"Spyro…?" Asked the large elder dragon as Spyro quietly entered the house. He quickly froze as if he'd been caught by the police. "Spyro…?" Nestor asked again. Spyro nodded. "Well… it's nice to see you're in one piece after all of that!" He exclaimed, as he motioned for Spyro to come to his office. Spyro cautiously followed Nestor. He was still unsure about what others would think about him after this morning's events. "Well… you certainly bounced back fast, young one! To what do I owe this visit?" Spyro took a deep breath in. It wasn't that he was nervous, per say, but that all the walking and flying he'd done was really hurting his legs and wings.

"I'm looking… for Cynder. Did she possibly come through here?" Nestor thought for a moment. He knew a lot of dragons, so it was always tough to remember a certain one… unless he knew the _well_. "You know, Cynder… that black dragon that we brought here… it was about a week ago…" Spyro added, sighing. Nestor nodded.

"Now I remember! Wait… she came back here? Funny, I haven't seen her anywhere." Spyro groaned. The only thing that was certainly going to make him keep looking for Cynder was his will. Frankly, his body was ready to head straight back where it came from. He trudges out of the house and decided to ask someone more his age. He walked around the village, doing his best to avoid looking at the other dragon's startled faces, until he found a familiar green dragon walking up the street.

"Hey, Sam… wait up for a second!" Spyro ran up after him, gritting his teeth as he did so. He notices that Sam has a bucket of paint gripped tightly in his jaw. "Hey, can I speak to you for a second?" Sam quickly dropped the paint bucket.

"Uh… sure…" He leaned in closer. "You're not still _possessed_, are you?" He whispered. Spyro frowned. Sam was always a paranoid dragon; he preferred to stick to himself. But, he was always willing to tell anyone anything they wanted to know. Nevertheless, the purple dragon just gave Sam a "not funny" look. "Okay… I get it. What is it you want…? I have to get this somewhere before sunset." Spyro rolled his eyes, impatiently.

"Cynder… have _you_ seen her?" There was another long pause. Spyro smacked his forehead. "You know… the mysterious black dragon that showed up at school about a week ago…" Another long pause; this seemed to irk Spyro ever-so-slightly. "Come on, Sam! Was there a BLACK dragon that spoke to you at all… or did you see one? About my height, three sets of horns… skull mark on her forehead…" Sam suddenly remembered something.

"Now that you mention it, I do remember seeing a black dragon walking around the village earlier. She seemed lost, so I asked her if she needed directions. She said she was looking for some really old temple place. I though she was crazy. We don't have any temples here, do we?" It then occurred to Spyro. There was _one_ temple, but he had doubted since he'd remembered it that it was still as he'd left it all those years ago. And the other problem… was where it was. The only place that Spyro thought about was a forest on the outskirts of the village. He'd never been in that forest, simply because whenever he tried he was caught by one of the elders and taken back to Nestor's house.

"Alright… thanks Sam." Spyro responded, he beat his wings and rose into the air, taking off towards a line of trees not to far away.

* * *

A LITTLE WHILE LATER…

In the air, the forest did not even seem that big. He'd seen much bigger forests in Avalar and the Forgotten Realms. Of course, it had been over 100 years since he'd last been in these uncharted regions of the Dragon Realms. Maybe the Artisans cut down some of the trees when they first arrived here. And yet, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a golden dome glittering under the sun; the bright orange ball was beginning to set. He flew down towards the structure and stopped on a balcony, overlooking the water and the horizon. There was no mistaking it; this was once his home. It was not the easiest home to manage, though. Not long after he'd helped to expel the Dark Armies from it, he began to adventure across different lands to rescue three of the Dragon Guardians. And then, once he'd beaten Cynder, Gaul's forces attacked the temple. And when he was finally able to go back home, after beating the Dark Master, he was left with the unfortunate task of helping to rebuild some of the parts of the temple that had been damaged during the attack. Yup, some _great_ memories of this old place were floating about in Spyro's mind, as he walked into a room he remembered well… the dragon statue room. He slowly walked around the large statue, taking in the warmth of the light the poured into the room.

But as he looked around, his foot made contact with something rough and scaly and he lost his balance and tumbled in front of none other than Cynder. She seemed startled by his sudden appearance, and jumped back slightly. He stood up, and she let a deep breath out, realizing it was just him. "Why did you decide to come here?" Spyro asked. Cynder shrugged.

"I don't really know. I guess I just wanted to see if it was still standing after all these years…" She responded. Spyro didn't really believe that answer, and he stared at her curiously. She watched as he walked around, and lay down next to her.

"Really?" He asked in a playful tone, "I think there's a little something besides that, don't you?" She just sighed.

"Alright… you got me." She turned around and faced him, her aqua green eyes meeting his shining purple ones. "When I was asleep, back at the castle, I was thinking about this place. About the time we'd spent here, about the things we'd gone through, all those years ago." She looked at a particular charred spot on the ground a few feet away. "See that? That was from when Sparx and I tried for more than an hour to wake you up, on the day we had to help that group of dragons coming to the temple from their old kingdom." Spyro smiled.

"I remember… you finally gave up and gave me a nasty flame in the backside. I ran for the nearby lake faster than I'd ever run before." The two of them laughed. "Yeah… those were good times… if only for a couple of weeks." Cynder sighed; she suddenly noticed that their tails were wrapped together.

"Spyro, I've wanted to tell you something… for a long time. And I'm pretty sure you've wanted to say the same thing. I don't know why I never told this before; I guess I was just nervous as to what you would say back." She leaned in closer to him. "You know why I saved you this morning, right? There was one true reason I did it. To me, life without you… would just not be worth living."

"And that's the same reason why I gave almost every bit of magic in my blood to bring you back. I didn't want to live without you for who knows how many years… again." He leaned closer to her. "The truth is that…"

"…I love you." They said, simultaneously. The leaned in and had locked lips before they knew it. Time seemed to stand perfectly still as this happened. It was a new experience for the both of them. But they were getting older; it would have to happen sooner or later. So better it happened sooner. After what seemed like an eternity, the two finally broke lips. Cynder nuzzled Spyro and stood up. "What is it?" Spyro asked.

"I hear something… voices." She responded. And then he heard it too; two faint voices, calling out their names. "It sounds like Ember…"

"…and Flame!" Spyro jumped up and ran out of temple. Low and behold, there the two of them were, standing on the balcony. "Hey!" He called out, as he trotted down to meet them, Cynder following. "What are you guys doing here?" Spyro asked.

"We wanted to make sure you were okay. And we wanted to tell you that Peach wants you guys to come back to the castle. She's throwing a little celebration for our accomplishments! Come one!" Ember responded. Cynder smiled and took off into the air after her. Flame walked up to Spyro.

"So… what happened?" He whispered.

"Well… I finally told her… and she told me."

"Did you… you know… kiss, or anything?" Spyro nodded.

"Yup… right on the lips." Flame smirked.

"A real charmer, aren't you?" Spyro's face turned a bizarre shade of scarlet in embarrassment. Flame elbowed him, playfully. "Come one… lighten up!" Spyro rolled his eyes.

"Are you going to ever tell Ember?" Flame shrugged.

"I don't know… I've got the whole summer ahead of me. Maybe tonight… maybe tomorrow… maybe next week. Who knows?" The two sighed.

"Well… let's get going!" Spyro said, as he beat his wings and rose into the air. "Come on… race ya! First to catch up to the girls wins!" Spyro takes off in the direction he'd come from.

"Hey! That's no fair! You got a head start!" Flame yelled as he chased after the purple dragon. The two eventually caught up to the girls. The final view is of the four dragons flying through the sunset; Spyro next to Cynder and Flame next to Ember. A narrator's voice can be heard.

_And so we've reached the end of our tale. The allies enjoyed the party thrown for them. The five dragons decided to move into Peach's Castle, seeing as it was close enough to the Dragon Realms. Spyro and Cynder began to train under the strict guidance of Tray. They also spent some "quality time" with their father, Vraël, which they enjoyed. Flame and Ember also trained, under Epsilon, to learn about the elements they'd just learned. Of course, there were the usual bad guys that reappeared, like Daroach, Lord Crump, and many others. As for Guy, and his "revenge", in would never come. Guy's body would be found floating, dead, in a river just two days after the allies fought Spyro. As soon as they found the body, Pandora revealed herself as the killer; using Prometheus's scythe while Guy was sleeping. As for Prometheus, he opened up a shop and decided to sell weapons, and teach some of the mortals how to use them. The M.R.U.N. extended its work to also include the newly acquired magical realms. _

_President Rose was impeached for covering up information about Guy from the public. Epsilon was elected by an overwhelming majority, and took over as president the next day. Zane and his friends finally left Spyro and his friends alone. They can now usually be found playing soccer with humans; they're all quite good at the game, once they get past the having four legs thing. Flame finally confessed his love to Ember, and she responded with great enthusiasm (supposedly jumping into his arms which such force, the two fell backwards into the lake that they were next to when he told her). Bowser decided to start a television sitcom, which had Shadow as the producer and writer. The show was incredibly successful and would stay within the "top 10 television sitcoms" list for several years. And lastly, Sparx finally came back to the Artisan Village from his vacation. He needed to ask Nestor where Spyro was before finally getting to Peach's Castle, and learning about everything that happened (he was out cold for 10 hours when Spyro finished telling him everything). _

_And that, my friends, is really…_

**THE END! **

* * *

**Author's Note: Alright, the next fic I'm writing will not be a crossover; it'll be a Legend of Spyro-esque story. The current working title is "The Mysterious Land". It will be a trilogy with the first episode having the subtitle "Unification". The rating on it will be "T", so there won't be any hassle in trying to find it. I'm not sure when I'll post the first chapter, so just keep checking! **

**Thanks to all who reviewed or sent me comments by some other form of messaging! Spyro and all related characters are copyright Sierra. The other video game series are copyright their respective companies (Nintendo, Sony, Capcom, etc.). All OCs as well as the plot and theme of this story are mine. OCs can be freely used as long as I (Nightmare King) am properly credited with their creation. **

**Have a good night, folks!**


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